CJK,
Most countries around the world have a different broadcast standard than the USA. Our old one was called NTSC (new digital is ATSC). PAL, SECAM, MAC1, etc are standards from around the world.
So short answer... even before this digital transition, US television sets wouldn't work most places in the world. The transistion did nothing to affect that either way.
That being said... there are a few countries (mostly North/Central America) that adopted the really awful NTSC standard the US used. Not many; most were smart enough to choose the other standards which came later and hence were better than ours. So check with the country you are travelling to and you might get lucky.
FYI - Pretty darn sure Iraq is PAL unless the army has set up an armed forces channel there like they have in Germany.
Hope this helps,
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MedB