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

by Baker, Raymond W.; Ismael, Shereen T; Ismael, Tareq Y.

• ISBN13: 9780745328126
• ISBN10: 0745328121
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-15
• Publisher: UCP

Summary

Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and the killing of intellectuals? Conventional wisdom portrays these events as the result of poor planning and accidents of war in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. However, the authors of this book argue that the reality is very different.

Author Biography

Raymond William Baker is Professor of International Politics at 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 at 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 Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada and is co-Editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies. He is the author, co-author or editor of more than 30 books including The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq (2008); The Communist Movement in the Arab World (2005); The Iraqi Predicament: People in the Quagmire of Power Politics (with Jacqueline S. Ismael; Pluto Press, 2004); and Iraq: The Human Cost of History (Pluto Press, 2003).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Formulating and Executing The Policy Of Cultural Cleansing
Ending the Iraqi State	p. 3
The Ideological Imperatives for a "New" Iraq	p. 7
The Neo-Conservative Movement	p. 8
Theory to Practice: The Modalities of State-Ending in Iraq	p. 12
Death Squads as Foreign Policy Tool	p. 13
The Israeli Example: State Destruction in Palestine	p. 16
The Question of Oil	p. 17
The Israeli Role in Iraq	p. 21
Israel in Occupied Iraq	p. 22
The Contours of Cultural Destruction	p. 25
Destruction of Social Institutions	p. 31
Conclusion	p. 42
Cultural Cleansing in Comparative Perspective	p. 49
The Cleansing of Civilizations	p. 50
The Cleansing of Peoples	p. 51
Building and Destroying Nations	p. 51
Crimes Against Culture: The Former Yugoslavia	p. 54
Crimes Against Culture: Palestine	p. 55
Conclusion	p. 60
Policy in Motion: The Assault on Iraq's Incomparable History
Archaeology and the Strategies of War	p. 67
The Assault on Iraqi History and Collective Memory	p. 68
The Willful Violence of Cultural Destruction	p. 79
The Current Status of the Archaeological Heritage of Iraq	p. 82
The Destruction	p. 82
An Overview of the Iraqi Cultural Heritage	p. 89
The Islamic Heritage	p. 91
Negligent Mnemocide and the Shattering of Iraqi Collective Memory	p. 93
Invasion Policies	p. 94
Baghdad Archives and Manuscript Collections	p. 98
Provincial Manuscript Collections	p. 106
Relative Human Valuation and the Collapse of Collective Memory	p. 106
Policy in Motion: The Present and the Future
Killing the Intellectual Class: Academics as Targets	p. 119
Looting, Arrests and Murder: The Occupation of Iraq Begins	p. 119
The Campaign of Assassination	p. 121
A Case Study: Baghdad's College of Dentistry	p. 125
Violence on Campus	p. 129
An Educational System on the Verge of Collapse	p. 130
Actions to Protect Iraqi Intellectuals	p. 131
The Occupation is Responsible	p. 136
Urgent Actions are Needed to Save Iraq's Academics	p. 137
Wiping the Slate Clean	p. 149
The Purge of Iraqi Academics	p. 149
Emergence of the Purge	p. 149
Targeted Assassinations	p. 153
Death Threats and Intimidation	p. 156
Kidnapping and Detention	p. 160
The Authorship of Killings of Iraqi Academics	p. 164
Motive and Opportunity	p. 164
Professor Tareq Samarree	p. 168
The Raid on the Ministry of Higher Education	p. 170
De-Ba 'athification and the Origin of the Purge of Academics	p. 172
The Intelligence Apparatus	p. 175
The End of History?	p. 181
Death, Displacement, or Flight	p. 203
Brain Drain	p. 204
Crime for Wage	p. 205
Surge Purge	p. 206
Hard Times/Bleak Future	p. 207
Permanently Disabled	p. 209
The Purging of Minds	p. 212
National Character Displacement	p. 213
"Brain Drain"	p. 216
Emergency	p. 219
Repression and Refdge	p. 220
Persecution	p. 223
Assault on the State	p. 225
State of Terror	p. 227
Salvador Option	p. 230
Minorities in Iraq: The Other Victims	p. 239
Introduction	p. 239
Field Research	p. 242
Current Situation of Minorities	p. 243
Yezidis	p. 245
Mandaeans	p. 246
Christians	p. 247
Turkmen	p. 249
Other Minorities	p. 249
Governance Challenges	p. 250
Conclusions	p. 253
Appendices
Reflections on Death Anxiety and University Professors in Iraq	p. 257
Death Psychology	p. 257
Death Anxiety in Iraq	p. 258
Conclusions	p. 261
List of Murdered Academics	p. 263
Notes on Contributors	p. 282
Index	p. 286
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