Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered
Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and killings of intellectuals? Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime.

Post-invasion chaos created conditions under which the cultural foundations of the state could be undermined. The authors painstakingly document the consequences of the occupiers' willful inaction and worse, which led to the ravaging of one of the world's oldest recorded cultures. Targeted assassination of over 400 academics, kidnapping and the forced flight of thousands of doctors, lawyers, artists and other intellectuals add up to cultural cleansing.

This important work lays to rest claims that the invasion aimed to free an educated population to develop its own culture of democracy.

1124402168
Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered
Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and killings of intellectuals? Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime.

Post-invasion chaos created conditions under which the cultural foundations of the state could be undermined. The authors painstakingly document the consequences of the occupiers' willful inaction and worse, which led to the ravaging of one of the world's oldest recorded cultures. Targeted assassination of over 400 academics, kidnapping and the forced flight of thousands of doctors, lawyers, artists and other intellectuals add up to cultural cleansing.

This important work lays to rest claims that the invasion aimed to free an educated population to develop its own culture of democracy.

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Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered

Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered

Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered

Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered

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Overview

Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and killings of intellectuals? Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime.

Post-invasion chaos created conditions under which the cultural foundations of the state could be undermined. The authors painstakingly document the consequences of the occupiers' willful inaction and worse, which led to the ravaging of one of the world's oldest recorded cultures. Targeted assassination of over 400 academics, kidnapping and the forced flight of thousands of doctors, lawyers, artists and other intellectuals add up to cultural cleansing.

This important work lays to rest claims that the invasion aimed to free an educated population to develop its own culture of democracy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780745328126
Publisher: Pluto Press
Publication date: 01/06/2010
Pages: 312
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Raymond William Baker is Professor of International Politics, Trinity College, USA, and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo. His most recent book is Islam Without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists.

Shereen T. Ismael is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and MSW Field Coordinator in the School of Social Work, Carleton University. In addition to her book Child Poverty and the Canadian Welfare State: from Entitlement to Charity (2006), she is the editor of Globalization: Policies, Challenges and Responses (1999).

Tareq Y. Ismael is a professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada & President of the International Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at eastern Mediterranean University. His most recent works include Middle East Politics Today (2001), Turkey's Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (2003), & Iraq: The Human Cost of History (2003).

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Part I Formulating and Executing The Policy Of Cultural Cleansing

1 Ending the Iraqi State Raymond W. Baker Shereen T. Ismael Tareq Y. Ismael 3

The Ideological Imperatives for a "New" Iraq 7

The Neo-Conservative Movement 8

Theory to Practice: The Modalities of State-Ending in Iraq 12

Death Squads as Foreign Policy Tool 13

The Israeli Example: State Destruction in Palestine 16

The Question of Oil 17

The Israeli Role in Iraq 21

Israel in Occupied Iraq 22

The Contours of Cultural Destruction 25

Destruction of Social Institutions 31

Conclusion 42

2 Cultural Cleansing in Comparative Perspective Glenn E. Perry 49

The Cleansing of Civilizations 50

The Cleansing of Peoples 51

Building and Destroying Nations 51

Crimes Against Culture: The Former Yugoslavia 54

Crimes Against Culture: Palestine 55

Conclusion 60

Part II Policy in Motion: The Assault on Iraq's Incomparable History

3 Archaeology and the Strategies of War Zainab Bahrani 67

The Assault on Iraqi History and Collective Memory 68

The Willful Violence of Cultural Destruction 79

4 The Current Status of the Archaeological Heritage of Iraq Abbas al-Hussainy 82

The Destruction 82

An Overview of the Iraqi Cultural Heritage 89

The Islamic Heritage 91

5 Negligent Mnemocide and the Shattering of Iraqi Collective Memory Nabil al-Tikriti 93

Invasion Policies 94

Baghdad Archives and Manuscript Collections 98

Provincial Manuscript Collections 106

Relative Human Valuation and the Collapse of Collective Memory 106

Part III Policy in Motion: The Present and the Future

6 Killing the Intellectual Class: Academics as Targets Dirk Adriaensens 119

Looting, Arrests and Murder: The Occupation of Iraq Begins 119

The Campaign of Assassination 121

A Case Study: Baghdad's College of Dentistry 125

Violence on Campus 129

An Educational System on the Verge of Collapse 130

Actions to Protect Iraqi Intellectuals 131

The Occupation is Responsible 136

Urgent Actions are Needed to Save Iraq's Academics 137

7 Wiping the Slate Clean Max Fuller Dirk Adriaensens 149

The Purge of Iraqi Academics 149

Emergence of the Purge 149

Targeted Assassinations 153

Death Threats and Intimidation 156

Kidnapping and Detention 160

The Authorship of Killings of Iraqi Academics 164

Motive and Opportunity 164

Case Study 1 Professor Tareq Samarree 168

Case Study 2 The Raid on the Ministry of Higher Education 170

De-Ba 'athification and the Origin of the Purge of Academics 172

The Intelligence Apparatus 175

The End of History? 181

8 Death, Displacement, or Flight Dabr Jamail 203

Brain Drain 204

Crime for Wage 205

Surge Purge 206

Hard Times/Bleak Future 207

Permanently Disabled 209

9 The Purging of Minds Philip Marfleet 212

National Character Displacement 213

"Brain Drain" 216

Emergency 219

Repression and Refdge 220

Persecution 223

Assault on the State 225

State of Terror 227

Salvador Option 230

10 Minorities in Iraq: The Other Victims Mokhtar Lamani 239

Introduction 239

Field Research 242

Current Situation of Minorities 243

Yezidis 245

Mandaeans 246

Christians 247

Turkmen 249

Other Minorities 249

Governance Challenges 250

Conclusions 253

Appendices

Appendix 1 Reflections on Death Anxiety and University Professors in Iraq Faris K.O. Nadhmi 257

Death Psychology 257

Death Anxiety in Iraq 258

Conclusions 261

Appendix 2 List of Murdered Academics 263

Notes on Contributors 282

Index 286

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