Living in Iraq, and unable to move somewhere that has the jobs you're looking for? That's a tough one. If you can't get a remote-only gig to work out, I'd be trying to start my own thing that I could do entirely over the Internet. The biggest problem, of course, is the coding is one job, and running a business is entirely different. Maybe you don't want that.
If one had a trustworthy business-minded friend who was willing to work with you at starting something that might be the way to go.
However, as OP directly experienced (as have I) most startups will fail. That's the normal result. Employment is almost always safer, even if ultimately less rewarding. So try to do an honest assessment of your risk tolerance. If you only have yourself to worry about, you can live on beans and rice for a long time. If you have children or other dependents, it can be more complicated.
> "However, as OP directly experienced (as have I) most startups will fail."
I was taught by my very first real "boss" (way back when dinosaurs roamed the streets) to never put more into your startup idea than you can afford to lose and still manage to survive afterwards. You can always rebuild (a totally new idea or a variation of the old, after learning from your mistakes) from that point as long as you can manage to survive your mistakes. On the other hand, he also said that if you're really serious about your idea you should absolutely invest in it as much as you're realistically able to (finances, time, and effort) without putting yourself in an un-survivable bind.
I don't think there are many, but hiring in another country usually has bureaucratic overhead and if there are only a few people in Iraq trying to work in the industry it's entirely plausible that many companies will just avoid trying to make it work for one guy.
