If Iraq was once a part of the Garden of Eden, then the place has sure gone to hell in a handbasket....
In the summer here, we say that it's sort of like Hell must be...barren, dusty and hot as....well, Hell.
The area from The mouth of the Euphrates to Damascus to the Jordan River valley used to be called the fertile crescent until the poor farming practices of the natives combined with the resurgence of Arab pastoral practices after the Islamic conquests deforested the land, drying it up and making it into a desert. If you have ever seen photos of Israel when it was part of the Ottoman Empire before extensive Jewish immigration you will see how much of a craphole the place was. Now after years of reforestation and modern farming practices, that area is in much better shape.
It's biblical!
Well I don't know if the Garden of Eden was in Iraq, but if it was the place went into Babylon = confusion, since those days.
I've heard this claim made before, and it is so stupid. Assuming the creation is literally true (which I do), the former world was destroyed in the flood. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers that exist today are not the same rivers mentioned pre-flood. They are rivers that were named for those rivers. The Garden of Eden could have been in Nebraska or Japan. The former world was washed away. Noah was in the ark for a year, floating randomly. None of the previous landmarks would have survived the flood, although new landmarks would be named for the old ones.