The University at War

Hugh Gusterson wrote an essay titled The University at War which highlights the "demodernization" of the Iraq education system.  The 25 page essay gives evidence from a variety of sources including today's top war corespondents, specifically Thomas Ricks, he writes explaining the connection between the desert storm conflict in 1991 and the Gulf War in 2003.  Gusterson will include in his essay statistics showing the decline in the Iraq education system and the systematic decline of education in the country as a direct result of Desert Storm.  As far as education in Iraq before the 1991 conflict was considered one of the best in the Middle East and today is considered the weakest says Gusterson using documentation from United Nations conferences as one of his many sources.  Siting that literacy rates were at 52% in 1977 and by 1987 the literacy rate had risen to 80% under the Saddam Hussein regime at the same time university attendance more than doubled and the university education in Iraq was free, paid for by the government.  Iraqi's considered themselves to be living in the "Cradle of civilization" based on the ancient society and contributions to all aspects of education.

Gusterson argued that after the conflict in 1991 a program called oil-for-food program left the children and young adults who wanted to go to school deprived of the material needed for a productive education.  The schools were ransacked for any material including wires and blackboards.
The UN sanctions against Iraq made it impossible for supplies to be shipped and any educational material was illegal to ship in according to the Christian Science Monitor.  Teaching was becoming an impossible task with no supplies and the decline of teaching salaries.  The Christian Science Monitor reported that salaries went from $2000 dollars before the conflict in the 1980's to less than $50 in the 1990's.  As a result professors fled and went to other countries According to Iraq's Association of University Teachers more than 10,000 instructors left Iraq.  Some to make a better living and then most because of government party affiliation. 

Was it possible to rebuild the University or the education system as a whole, the answer would have been yes if a few of the U.S. troops who guarded the oil ministries had been left in the cities to over see the protection of schools or universities.  However, that did not happen and because it did not happen looters picked the buildings clean of all books and artifacts selling them on the black market.  Those books and documents that had not been stolen, instead the building were burned destroying, according to Fernando Baez author of A Universal History of the Destruction of Books up to one million books and ten million unique documents were burned in various educational buildings. 

The essay shows example after example from page 11-14 of ways in which Iraqi education was put aside, first John Agresto is appointed as Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Education his goal, to create a modern university system with the latest electronic technology and establish a comparative religion program where the bible could be taught and studied.  He requested $1.2 billion for the rebuilding of the educational system but was only given $8 million and $500,000 was for administration overhead.  By the end of 2004 no money was given to rebuild the education system in Iraq.

By 2004  the university system is in shambles and party affiliation is of utmost importance.  The universities have become chaotic, Professor curriculum were being sabotaged by the two different parties and professors are being threatened to follow along party lines or they would be killed.  Many professors as per Gusterson were being assassinated whether they complied or not, violence at the universities were happening more frequently.  In 2006 the Washington Post estimated 160 professors had been killed. In the 1980's women were attending university and by 2004 less than 10% of the students were women because of Muslim Fundamentalist, not allowing women to get a higher education at the universities.

Gusterson pointed to a shift in university policy and funding from 2006-2009, The Department of Homeland Security received $1billion of research money to be used at a number of different universities for new support centers of excellence.  Anti-Terrorism centers popped up at the countries most prestige including University of Southern California and Purdue University and Rutgers University.  Gusterson argues that the war has taken its toll on the Iraqi people specifically the young students who at one time had one of the best and because of military"destruction" getting the Iraq education system to stand out will take many years of rebuilding if at all possible.





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