Cultural Cleansing in Iraq

Description

Why did the invasion of Iraq result in the destruction of culture and murder 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' wilful 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 book lays to rest claims that the invasion aimed to free an educated population to develop its own culture of democracy.
Dedication

Preface

Part I: Formulating and Executing the Policy of Cultural Cleansing

1. Introduction by Raymond W. Baker, Shereen T. Ismael and Tareq Y. Ismael

2. Cultural Cleansing in Comparative Perspective by Glenn E. Perry

Part II: Policy in Motion: Destroying the Past, Killing the Future

Part A: The Assault on Iraq's Incomparable History

3.Archaeology and the Strategies of War by Zainab Bahrani

4. The Status of Iraq's Archaeological Heritage: Report on the Destruction of Archaeological Sites, Museums and Historical Monuments in Occupied Iraq by Abbas Husainy

5. Negligient Mnemocide and the Shattering of Iraqi Collective Memory by Nabil Al Tikriti (University of Mary Washington, USA)

Part B: The Present and the Future

6. Killing the Intellectual Class by Dahr Jamil and Max Fuller

Dirk Adriaensens

7. The Purging of Minds by Philip Marfleet

8. Minorities in Iraq: The Other Victims by Mokhtar Lamani

Part III: Appendices

Appendix I. Reflections on Death Anxiety and University Professors in Iraq by Faris K. O. Nadhmi

Appendix II. List of Murdered Academics

About the Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Modern
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• Military history
• 21st century
• Iraq
• Iraq War
• Modern warfare
• Modern history
• General officer
• Military
• Imperialism
• Impérialisme (jeu vidéo)
• General
• Irak
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783718283
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cultural Cleansing in Iraq
Cultural Cleansing in Iraq
Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered
Edited by
RAYMOND W. BAKER, SHEREEN T. ISMAEL and TAREQ Y. ISMAEL
First published 2010 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © Raymond W. Baker, Shereen T. Ismael and Tareq Y. Ismael 2010
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN   978 0 7453 2813 3   Hardback ISBN   978 0 7453 2812 6   Paperback ISBN   978 1 8496 4399 3   PDF eBook ISBN   978 1 7837 1828 3   EPUB eBook ISBN   978 1 7837 1829 0   Kindle eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Sidmouth, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Issam al-Rawi, Professor of Geology, Baghdad University and Chairman of the Association of University Teachers (AUT). Professor al-Rawi founded the register of assassinated academics and worked tirelessly to record the fate of Iraqi academics and experts in the wake of the invasion of the Coalition Forces and dissolution of the Iraqi state. Dr. al-Rawi was assassinated on October 30, 2006, after being targeted to silence the truth.
CONTENTS
Preface
PART I
FORMULATING AND EXECUTING THE POLICY OF CULTURAL CLEANSING
1
Ending the Iraqi State
Raymond W. Baker, Shereen T. Ismael, and Tareq Y. Ismael
The Ideological Imperatives for a “New” Iraq
The Neo-Conservative Movement
Theory to Practice: The Modalities of State-Ending in Iraq
Death Squads as Foreign Policy Tool
The Israeli Example: State Destruction in Palestine
The Question of Oil
The Israeli Role in Iraq
Israel in Occupied Iraq
The Contours of Cultural Destruction
Destruction of Social Institutions
Conclusion
2
Cultural Cleansing in Comparative Perspective
Glenn E. Perry
The Cleansing of Civilizations
The Cleansing of Peoples
Building and Destroying Nations
Crimes Against Culture: The Former Yugoslavia
Crimes Against Culture: Palestine
Conclusion
PART II
Policy in Motion: The Assault on Iraq’s Incomparable History
3
Archaeology and the Strategies of War
Zainab Bahrani
The Assault on Iraqi History and Collective Memory
The Willful Violence of Cultural Destruction
4
The Current Status of the Archaeological Heritage of Iraq
Abbas al-Hussainy
The Destruction
An Overview of the Iraqi Cultural Heritage
The Islamic Heritage
5
Negligent Mnemocide and the Shattering of Iraqi Collective Memory
Nabil al-Tikriti
Invasion Policies
Baghdad Archives and Manuscript Collections
Provincial Manuscript Collections
Relative Human Valuation and the Collapse of Collective Memory
PART III
Policy in Motion: The Present and the Future
6
Killing the Intellectual Class: Academics as Targets
Dirk Adriaensens
Looting, Arrests and Murder: The Occupation of Iraq Begins
The Campaign of Assassination
A Case Study: Baghdad’s College of Dentistry
Violence on Campus
An Educational System on the Verge of Collapse
Actions to Protect Iraqi Intellectuals
The Occupation is Responsible
Urgent Actions are Needed to Save Iraq’s Academics
7
Wiping the Slate Clean
Max Fuller and Dirk Adriaensens
The Purge of Iraqi Academics
Emergence of the Purge
Targeted Assassinations
Death Threats and Intimidation
Kidnapping and Detention
The Authorship of Killings of Iraqi Academics
Motive and Opportunity
Case Study 1: Professor Tareq Samarree
Case Study 2: The Raid on the Ministry of Higher Education
De-Ba‘athification and the Origin of the Purge of Academics
The Intelligence Apparatus
The End of History?
8
Death, Displacement, or Flight
Dahr Jamail
Brain Drain
Crime for Wage
Surge Purge
Hard Times/Bleak Future
Permanently Disabled
9
The Purging of Minds
Philip Marfleet
National Character of Displacement
“Brain Drain”
Emergency
Repression and Refuge
Persecution
Assault on the State
State of Terror
Salvador Option
10
Minorities in Iraq: The Other Victims
Mokhtar Lamani
Introduction
Field Research
Current Situation of Minorities
Yezidis
Mandaeans
Christians
Turkmen
Other Minorities
Governance Challenges
Conclusions
Appendices
Appendix 1: Reflections on Death Anxiety and University Professors in Iraq
Faris K.O. Nadhmi
Death Psychology
Death Anxiety in Iraq
Conclusions
Appendix 2: List of Murdered Academics
Notes on Contributors
Index
PREFACE
No reasonable person, even those critics most angry and disgusted with the Bush administration, would claim that the destruction of particular Iraqi cultural treasures or the assassination of specific scholars was the aim of the armchair “warriors” who planned and launched the war against Iraq. Nevertheless, the destruction was willful. The war planners quite consciously and deliberately aimed for the destruction of the Iraqi state. They did so because a strong Iraq was an impediment to American imperial designs and Israeli insistence on unimpeded regional hegemony. A strong Iraqi state cast a shadow on both visions. In willful violation of international law against preventative war and with complete disregard for its responsibilities as an occupying power, the United States and its allies have failed to protect Iraq’s incomparable cultural treasures. Given the scope of the destruction that took place on their watch, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the occupiers understood that damaging the cultural underpinnings of Iraqi identity would also hasten the collapse of modern day Iraq. In just the same way, the apparent indifference and failure to respond to the decimation of the Iraqi intellectual class through targeted assassinations points to the conclusion that Iraq’s occupiers and their allies had little interest in preserving the priceless human resources represented by Iraq’s educated elite. Oil mattered and so Oil Ministry records were protected. The files of the Interior Ministry that would certainly have compromised both Americans and Israelis mattered and so they were protected. In contrast, priceless archaeological artifacts and leading scholars faced the looters and the assassins alone and undefended. The aim of this book is to demonstrate to the world in the most precise and accurate way that conditions created by the occupiers enabled the cultural destruction of Iraq. There were of course other criminals afoot in the mayhem unleashed by the invasion. However, the primary responsibility for this shameful, immoral and illegal chapter in modern history falls on the Bush administration that launched this war of choice to “remake” modern Iraq.
This book results from a collective effort of Iraqi and international specialists to provide a record of what Iraqis and the world have lost. As a group we shared a commitment to record and assess the cultural devastation and the killings of Iraqi scholars and intellectuals. It was that commitment that allowed so diverse a group to work together so smoothly. We are grateful for the exceptional hard work and dedication from our two research assistants: Candice M. Juby worked diligently to bring the chapters into conformity with the publisher’s style, and Christopher Langille helped in a multitude of ways to bring the project to completion. We are especially thankful as well to Roger van Zwanenberg, the chairman of Pluto Press, who offered creative suggestions and asked hard and stimulating questions at all stages. Finally, we appreciate the decision of Edel el Moallem of Dar el Shorouk International to publish an Arabic version of our book in cooperation with Pluto Press for distribution in the Arab world.
The Editors February 7, 2009
PART I
Formulating and Executing the Policy of Cultural Cleansing
1
ENDING THE IRAQI STATE
Raymond W. Baker, Shereen T. Ismael, and Tareq Y. Ismael
Just days after the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz declared that a major focus of US foreign policy would be “ending states that sponsor terrorism.” Iraq was labeled a “terrorist state” and targeted for “ending.” President Bush went on to declare Iraq the major front of the global war on terror. American-led forces invaded with the express aim of dismantling the Iraqi state.
Mainstream social science has yet to come to terms with the full meaning of “ending states” as a policy objective. Social science in the era of post-World War II decolonization has focused for the most part on the study of state-building and development. The primary axis of contention among development scholars and policy makers has been between one school espousing state-driven development models and a second advocating neo-liberal market approaches. Little has been written by either school on the question of state-destruction and de-development. Such outcomes have generally been seen as the by-products of war and civil-strife, rather than as desirable policy outcomes. Critical scholarship has challenged the adequacy of such dominant views. Critics draw attention to such phenomena