System of Death (I): Paul Bremer’s Morality Police

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System of Death (I): Paul Bremer’s Morality Police


http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/5cols/leading_images/Iraq_Activists_Emo_Assir_Main_pic_1.jpg
A man who goes by the name Haifa drinks tea with his back to the camera so as not to be identified in Baghdad 12 March 2012. Since the start of this year, death squads have been targeting two separate groups - gay men, and those who dress in a distinctive, Western-influenced style called "emo". (Photo: REUTERS - Saad Shalash)



By: Serene Assir (http://english.al-akhbar.com/author/serene-assir)
Published Monday, April 9, 2012



The recent wave of targeted killings against emo youth in Iraq was done under the pretense of morality. Death has been rationalized in many different ways since the 2003 invasion of the country. This three-part series takes a look at how the system of death was installed by the US occupation and how it keeps fueling itself despite the withdrawal of troops.

In December 2011, the US withdrew its troops from Iraq. But the Green Zone fortress remained, along with around 16,000 State Department staff. Since the start of the occupation, the US has maintained more embassy staff in Iraq than in all its embassies in the world combined. Thousands of special forces and contractors also remain in Iraq.
The occupation, however, has institutionalized itself in more than just staff presence. As soon as the US and UK invaded Iraq, the destruction of the state began. It has been argued (http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/Sanctions.pdf) that process of destruction had begun under sanctions imposed 13 years earlier.

Excess death in Iraq is neither collateral nor accidental. It is the natural consequence of a system that feeds off massacring target groups.The moment of invasion was fateful in multiple ways. Within weeks of the fall of Baghdad, Coalition Provisional Authority chief Paul Bremer passed orders 1 and 2, which almost simultaneously kicked off the so-called de-Baathification process of Iraq, and the dissolution of country’s military and security structures. As such, Iraq saw the near-simultaneous dismantlement of the state and its capacity for national self-defense.

The nine years that followed have seen the establishment and consolidation of a political process based on sectarianism, the degradation of secularism, the breaking up of the welfare state, and massive death tolls exceeding 1.4 million, according to some studies (http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/156).
While plans (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12572371/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/biden-proposes-partitioning-iraq-regions/#.T3SGUmWYGSo) for the partition of Iraq have yet to be executed, the danger remains.
Fundamentally, excess death in Iraq is neither collateral nor accidental. It is the natural consequence of a system that feeds off massacring target groups. Their progressive elimination – by killing, submission or forced flight – begets division and the perpetuation of the US-installed political process. Four months on from the troop withdrawal, the US murderous system remains.



The Latest in a String of Victims

A quick YouTube search returns a number of videos that express hate for the “emo” culture, both in the Arab world and beyond. Some are more bizarre than others, but all toe a line that at once mystifies and demonizes this expression of urban subculture. For instance, with almost 200,000 hits, one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odb_Qd9icdY&feature=related) describes the “emo phenomenon” as being linked to homosexuality, love of suicide, and depression. Towards the end of the video, viewers are asked to reflect on the dangerous presence of emos in “our Arab Islamic” society.
Another (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgFvMCgnEc8&feature=player_embedded&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fl.php%3Fu%3Dh ttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fwatch%253Fv% 253DmgFvMCgnEc8%2526feature%253Dplayer_embedded%26 h%3DCAQGGjcqxAQGVgl7lFIbK_gdrzQKyv4fKWDP62zZ2UqEOT Q&has_verified=1) asks viewers to ponder on whether emos deserve to be killed. The soundtrack is a song honoring powerful Iraqi politician Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrist current.

Meanwhile, a third (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucbati6s8Cg) shows Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, describing the “emergence of strange social phenomena” in Iraq, including the emo culture, which “contradict our ethical and religious foundations.” In his February 26 speech, the influential political and religious leader called on Iraqi families and civil society organizations to “beware such phenomena” and to “treat [them] not with violence, but with thought, and by taking the right steps, because they have a destructive effect on our society.”
Rather than heed Hakim’s call for a non-violent intervention, a killing spree of young people perceived as homosexual and followers of emo culture began. Estimates of numbers of people killed from February 6 to date stand at around 100, according to the London-based Iraqi LGBT human rights organization. Yanar Mohammed, Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq founder, said the reality was likely worse. “The figures are scary. We have a trusted medical source in eastern Baghdad, who puts the number killed in recent weeks alone at 278,” she told Al-Akhbarin a telephone interview in mid-March.


The recent wave of killings have little to do with the reality of what emo culture is, and much more to do with emos are perceived as being.Emo, which is short for “emotional,” is a sub-category of hardcore punk, with heightened strokes of sensitivity and melancholy. The world over, emos are scorned by some, as are other urban trends that involve an easily identifiable dress style and denote rebelliousness.
But Mohammed said she believes the recent wave of killings have little to do with the reality of what emo culture is, and much more to do with emos are perceived as being. “People think emos are homosexual. The killing of Iraqi homosexuals is not new; all we are witnessing is an intensified wave,” Mohammed said. From 2005 to 2010, the Iraqi LGBT documented (http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/2010/06/iraqi-lgbt-extremely-concerned-by-new.html) the killing of 738 homosexuals in Iraq.



Blaming Government and Militias

The climate of impunity under which the US-installed Iraqi regime operates renders it difficult to confirm who exactly is behind the violence. But what is clear is that the hate-mongering against people labeled as emos of the kind seen in the aforementioned videos is but the tip of the iceberg.
A recent Moral Police statement published on the Iraqi Ministry of Interior’s website equated emo culture with devil worship. The statement (http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-teenagers-stoned-death-emo-haircuts), translated and published by Al-Akhbar in full on March 9, said the emo trend had been “discovered a while back by members of our force in Baghdad...A report has been made and given to the Ministry of Interior to receive an approval to carry on with the investigation and to know how to eliminate the phenomenon."
On March 10, Muqtada Sadr gave a speech describing the emo as “crazy” and “foolish,” according to Iraqi news website Al-Sumaira (http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/iraq-politics-news/-1-37867.html). He also called on the authorities to “eliminate” the trend, albeit “through legal channels.” On March 11, Sadr denied (http://www.nasiriyah.org/ara/post/13455) having made any statements calling for the killing of emos, and urged the media to “exercise caution” in its reporting on the matter.
Though activists working to protect Iraqis labeled as emos disagreed on which militias they believed were behind the killings, they agreed on the likely involvement of religious militias with substantial power in post-invasion Iraq, including Sadr and Nouri al-Maliki supporters.


Activists working to protect Iraqis labeled as emos disagreed on which militias they believed were behind the killings, they agreed on the likely involvement of religious militias with substantial power in post-invasion Iraq.Part of the proof they used to substantiate their claims were material links between tools used in this wave of killings and the sectarian war that peaked in 2006, according to Yanar Mohammed. “It seems the killers behind this wave are using black Toyota cars, with tinted windows, that we saw used by the militias during the sectarian war,” she said.
To Iraqi LGBT chair Ali Hili, the Sadrists’ history of violence against homosexuals was a cause for concern. He also believed that Badr Brigade members – as part of the country’s security ministries – initiated the killing young spree of people branded as emos.

Once the armed wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, most Badr Brigade members joined the post-2003 Iraqi army and police. Today, both the interior and defense ministries are headed by Maliki. But a mounting scandal surrounding the killing of emo youth, including a March 16 joint Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch statement (http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/iraq-investigate-emo-attacks-2012-03-16), helped force the Badr to back down, “because it was worsening the authorities’ image,” said Hili. “So now, the Sadrists are at the forefront.”
For her part, Mohammed said the Asaib al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, which brands itself as a resistance group and has ties to Iran, is the more likely culprit. “I can confirm that this is where the threats started,” she said, adding most Asaib al-Haq members were defectors from the Sadrist current.



The Weakest Link in the Chain

Regardless of who started the killing, the hate-mongering seemed to have filtered down into the general population quickly.
“We’re very scared, do you know what it is to have all of the country turned against you?” said 27-year-old Ali, speaking to Al-Akhbar by telephone from an Iraqi LGBT shelter set up in an undisclosed location in Iraq. “It started with the government. Now everyone wants us dead, even our family and our neighbors. It’s horrible. Three of my friends have been killed. What hope do I have?”
The sense of urgency in Ali’s voice was all too familiar with the fear injected into Iraqi society as a whole since 2003. After all, the wave of killing of youth perceived as emo or homosexual is just the latest in a string of campaigns against Iraqi minorities, or vulnerable groups. “It’s not just about homosexuality,” said Hili of the Iraqi LGBT. “All minorities are targeted. Since 2003, anyone who looks or acts different is a target.”






http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/system-death-i-paul-bremer%E2%80%99s-morality-police

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System of Death (II): The Road to Partition


http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/5cols/leading_images/Iraq_Christians_pic_1.jpg
Iraqi Christians are searched as they queue up to attend Easter at Virgin Mary Chaldean Church in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, 24 April 2011. (Photo: AP - Khalid Mohammed)



By: Serene Assir (http://english.al-akhbar.com/author/serene-assir)
Published Wednesday, April 11, 2012



Part Two of this series looks at the fatal consequences the US occupation of Iraq has had on the country’s religious minorities, who have almost no stake in the sectarian system that now governs the country.


What started out as a punching bag for jokes, when it permeated that former US President George W. Bush didn’t know the difference between Sunni and Shia, has over time turned Iraq into a sectarian nightmare. False divisions into a “Kurdish north,” “Sunni triangle,” and “Shia south” acted not only as reductionist descriptions that helped make the phenomenon of embedded coverage on a much more complex reality easier. They also helped pave the way for sectarian killing, division, and the creation of sect-based and ethnic enclaves. The end result? The sustained threat of partition for Iraq.

Christians, Mandeans, Yazidis, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Shabaks were just some of the groups that simply did not fit into the Kurdish-Sunni-Shia construct proposed for post-invasion Iraq. Other sizeable groups whose exclusion from the new order meant mass death and forced flight included Palestinian refugees, who had long enjoyed better protection in Iraq than they did in most other Arab states. Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds (most of whom are Sunni) have also suffered massive casualties since 2003, and the lack of protection offered to minorities is a reflection of attacks on all Iraqis’ rights. But through almost a decade of war, the systematic nature of the persecution suffered by religious and ethnic minorities has stood out.

Across the board, patterns of decimation showed with every year of occupation that passed. Estimated to number a few hundred in 2003, five years later there were only 10 to 15 Jews in Iraq, according to a Brookings Institution-University of Bern paper published in 2008. While Mandeans numbered around 30,000, their numbers had shrunk to 13,000. The number of Palestinians in Iraq shrank from 35,000 in 2003 to 15,000 in 2008, according to the same paper.


Occupying forces’ obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population of the country they are occupying.Since 2008, the situation of minorities has by no means improved, even though casualties as a result of sectarian war in 2006-7 meant there was significant media coverage of the targeting of vulnerable groups. In 2011, head of the Rafidain parliamentary bloc Unadim Kana was quoted as describing the situation of Iraqi minorities as“tragic.” (file:///P://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=145174&l=1)
But no real judicial investigation has been carried out, in spite of the sustained, systematic violence suffered by such groups. As such, crimes against Iraq’s minorities remain unprosecuted, permanently damaging the country’s demographic make-up.



Iraqi Christians in the Eye of the Storm

Just as dramatic as the fate of other religious minorities, was the reduction of Iraq’s Christian population by half since 2003, due to killing and forced flight, according to Iraqi human rights activist Souad al-Azzawi. Some estimates (http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2008/1223_minorities_ferris.aspx) go further, warning that Iraq’s Christian population may have shrunk from 1.4 million to approximately 600,000. Starting from early in the occupation, dozens of churches were targeted for attack, with the occupying forces doing nothing to protect them. Particularly in 2004, dozens of Christian religious figures were targeted for kidnapping and killing, leading to the instilling of collective panic among other faithful.

Answers to the question of who specifically was behind their targeting vary from one location of Iraq to another, and from one period of the occupation to the next. But activists have consistently pointed to the occupying forces’ obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population of the country they are occupying. By institutionalizing sectarianism, what the occupation achieved was the total opposite of its duties under international law.
“The Christians were targeted by Iraqi extremists and the US occupation together,” said Lucien Jamil, an Iraqi priest who campaigns for Christians’ rights. “The occupation empowered political minorities to take control of the country on its behalf. Shias and Sunnis who accepted to work with the occupying power from within the confines of the Green Zone constituted political minorities who were given power in order to balance each other out, while killing opponents to the occupation.”
Christians, he added, and by default other non-represented religious minorities, did not have any authority to resort to when faced with violence. “The occupation worked to normalize and legalize that which cannot be normalized,” said Jamil. “The Christians, who did not even set out to oppose the occupation to begin with, simply did not have the political weight to defend themselves as a minority.”

Part of the conundrum faced not only by Christians but by millions of Iraqis from 2003 onwards, was born from the lack of any real culture of categorizing people into majorities and minorities. “Politically speaking, we thought of ourselves as Iraqi and Arab, not as Christian,” said Jamil. In spite of the sea-change in Iraqi politics, no political group with any real grassroots legitimacy emerged to give a voice to Christians in the country’s new sectarian system.
“Iraqi Christians who became politicians in post-invasion Iraq could not really represent us, because they worked with the occupying power. To us they are like cartoons. They’re not real.” Jamil added that, in the ultimate twist of irony, many of the new Christian politicians were in fact “de-frocked Baathists who decided to work with the occupier, and to make the most of the new order.”

Political initiatives proposed on behalf of the Christian population included multiple calls (http://www.christiansofiraq.com/politicalautonomy.html) for theestablishment (http://religion.info/english/articles/article_287.shtml) of an autonomous region (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/05/144308.html) for their beleaguered minority. While the call acted as a reflection of the Iraqi Christians’ suffering, it also toed the occupation-injected partition instinct. “The occupation has changed the structure of the country completely for Christians and other denominations,” said Jamil. “But I still believe that the best way forward for Iraq’s Christians is to work together with other movements that genuinely strive for the autonomy of Iraq – not its splitting.”



Sectarianism Until Partition

Following the withdrawal of US troops in December 2011, there was a surge in generalized violence, affecting people from all across the country. In recent months, this surge has involved multiple coordinated bomb attacks. On March 20, multiple blasts across the country left scores dead and hundreds injured. On January 5, at least 72 people were killed in coordinated blasts that targeted Shia areas, including the heavily populated Sadr City area of Baghdad.


Iraqi Christians who became politicians in post-invasion Iraq could not really represent us, because they worked with the occupying power.While the coordinated blasts were attributed, with the same haziness that so often characterizes terrorism in Iraq, to supposed Al-Qaeda inspired militants, the violence ignited fears that hardcore sectarian killing might return to previous peak levels under occupation. With Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at odds with Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi – whom al-Maliki accused of sponsoring terrorism – and insecurity rising, there were fears that sectarian divisions could be forced wider in the aftermath of the US’ withdrawal.

For now, the outwardly all-powerful al-Maliki, who also holds the defense and interior portfolios, publicly rejects partitioning as a solution to Iraq’s problems, and defends federalism instead. But the question of how much power he would retain were he to turn against the US outright is an open one.
From open calls for partition to the US Senate voting in favor of a plan to partition Iraq in 2007, the US’ design was quietened down in the face of generalized Iraqi opposition to division, only to be replaced with discourse on so-called “soft,” or low-speed partition. With time, that too proved unpopular, (http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/iraq-iran-gulf/iraq/why-soft-partition-of-iraq-wont-work.aspx) though the absence of discussion in the public realm on the issue was not enough to dispel Iraqis’ fears that division remained on the table, albeit through different means.
By definition, the occupation’s first success was the destruction of Iraq’s sovereignty – a sovereignty that the country has not recovered, at least politically, in spite of the US troop withdrawal. Though Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal, at least as a partial victory, consciousness of the continued danger of partition remains. As such, so long as those at the helm in Iraq continue to owe their power to foreign states, and not the Iraqi people as a whole, the country’s unity is under threat.
Though fragile and relatively few in number, Iraq’s minorities are the guarantors of a diverse, non-sectarian nation. It may be for that precise reason, that those working toward the division of Iraq have turned the daily experience of members of minority groups into a living nightmare.




http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/system-death-ii-road-partition

















System of Death (III): Uprooting the Iraqi State


http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/5cols/leading_images/Iraq_3_Serene_pic_1.jpgA picture shows a view of Firdous square, where the statue of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein used to stand, in the capital Baghdad on 9 April 2012. (Photo: AFP - Ahmad Al-Rubaye)





By: Serene Assir (http://english.al-akhbar.com/author/serene-assir)
Published Friday, April 13, 2012



The final part of this series goes to when when the groundwork was laid in order to build the system of death. In order to build the fractured framework of a new Iraq, the old state structure had to be destroyed.
“On 11 April 2003, a number of Iraqi scientists and university professors sent an SOS e-mail complaining that American occupation forces were threatening their lives,” read a statement (http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G12/109/34/PDF/G1210934.pdf?OpenElement) submitted in February 2012 by a dozen NGOs to the UN Human Rights Council. “The appeal stated that looting and robberies were taking place under the watchful eye of occupation soldiers...The e-mail also noted that occupation forces had drawn up lists of the names, addresses, and research areas of the Iraqi scientists to assist them in their harassment tasks in light of the anarchy that existed after the occupation.”
More than nine years have gone by since that appeal was sent out. But the suffering of Iraq’s academics and professionals only worsened, persisting after the withdrawal of US troops in December 2011. One set of professionals after another was targeted, and with each individual who was killed, kidnapped, forced to flee, or otherwise pushed permanently out of the public sphere, a fragment of Iraq’s collective memory and capacity to rebuild was destroyed.
The targeting of academics and professionals began as soon as the occupation’s policy of so-called de-Baathification became official in April 2003. With the purposeful dismantlement of Iraq’s public institutions, about 15,500 (http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/AcademicsDossier.pdf) scientists, researchers, professors, and teachers were made jobless, and thereby marginal and unprotected. Years on from the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority’s (CPA) decision, the targeting continued.



The De-Baathification Myth

Before the invasion, 72 percent of jobs in Iraq’s public institutions were held by women.While the destruction of the Iraqi middle class began on the basis of alleged de-Baathification, what it did was lay the basis in one clean stroke for the destruction of the Iraqi state. Doctors, teachers, engineers, and other qualified Iraqis who worked for the state were forcibly marginalized, and turned into easy targets for killing. The killing began, at the hands of multiple criminal groups, including militias and death squads. Some of the groups involved had ties to the Iraqi regime installed by the US occupation. Others took advantage of the occupation’s disregard for the welfare of Iraqi society to conduct their crimes. And over time, the motive for targeting professionals has developed to include violence against professionals not only for political and economic reasons, but also for “moral” reasons.

The fate of women with careers perhaps shows this development most clearly. Female professionals were instantly turned into victims of the new order imposed by the occupation. Before the invasion, 72 percent of jobs in Iraq’s public institutions were held by women (http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/Women.pdf). As soon as CPA chief Paul Bremer passed order number 1, which banned all public sector employees with any alleged links to the Baath Party from ever being employed by the state again, many became jobless.
Then, with the mushrooming of extremist militias under the occupation’s eyes, women found it increasingly difficult to find work, or even go out onto Iraq’s streets, without being threatened with kidnapping or rape. The philosophy of militias with an extremist view on religion, unsurprisingly, was unfavorable towards women in the workplace. While successive US administrations have claimed to be fighting extremism, they have in fact given it fodder and helped it to grow. As such, women professionals like Hana Ibrahim, a veteran Iraqi journalist-turned-refugee in Syria, were unable to continue doing their work, because of direct threats against them.
But neither the occupation authorities nor the Iraqi officials who came to power following the invasion have ever conducted any meaningful investigation into the plight of professionals or academics, as the joint statement submitted to the UN Human Rights Council highlighted.

Indeed, men and women with qualifications including doctors, teachers, scientists, journalists, university professors, artists, and engineers were among the first victims of a system that seems to have been created in order to destroy Iraq’s institutions. They were the people with the qualifications and capacity to help rebuild a post-war country. Without them, no nation would survive.

The occupation regime referred to as de-Baathification was in reality a destruction of the secular state.Among the occupation’s victims was Omar al-Kubeissy, once one of the country’s most prominent cardiologists. He was forced to flee Iraq in 2005, when medical doctors of multiple fields became target of a threat campaign. At that time, letters started arriving at doctors’ offices in clinics and hospitals, warning them that either they stopped working, or they would be killed. “But the threats haven’t stopped,” said al-Kubeissy, who has dedicated much of the past seven years of his life to campaigning for Iraqi doctors’ rights. “Now, it’s the male gynecologists who are being threatened. I’ve received news from at least 22 gynecologists and obstetricians, who said they had received messages saying that either they should stop treating women, or they will be killed.”

Al-Kubeissy currently resides in Jordan, which hosts approximately 450,000 Iraqis according to government estimates. Angered by the latest wave of threats against his peers, he said that “what is most shocking is the fact that Iraqis have been practising modern gynecology for more than 100 years. And yet, the Iraqi Ministry of Health has done nothing to protect professionals.” A fortnight ago, when a doctor friend of al-Kubeissy faced an attack in the southern city of Basra by members of an unknown militia, “the ministry’s only response to him was: ‘These things happen.’ What kind of ministry is that?”
With no protection from violence, few professionals were willing to speak publicly concerning their plight. Instead, they faced the impossible dilemma of staying in Iraq and facing the consequences, or flight. “Some say doctors should arm themselves to go to work,” said al-Kubeissy. “As a doctor, the notion of carrying a weapon is disgusting.”

As with the recent campaign against “emos,” threats directed against Iraq’s gynecologists seemed to part from an extremist reading of Islam by militias with varying degrees of ties to the post-invasion political system. Part of the problem, as highlighted by the cardiologist, was the lack of government protection for people facing a direct threat. Another side to it was the proliferation under occupation of a plethora of anti-modern militias, that helped terrorize and subdue the population. What the occupation regime referred to as de-Baathification was in reality a destruction of the secular state.
One major effect of numerous waves of violence against doctors has been the destruction of Iraq’s once state-of-the-art medical system. “People with all kinds of illnesses are unable to seek proper treatment in Iraq,” said al-Kubeissy. “Electricity cuts prevent operations from working. Complex diseases like cancer – which have increased since the start of the occupation – cannot be treated properly if you don’t have the right staff. People with money to travel out of Iraq for treatment do so regularly. The rest just suffer.”



Opening the Gates of a Brain Drain

But it was not only the medical doctors who suffered. As early as 2007, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 40 percent of the country’s middle class had fled Iraq, with most seeking refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. Without the right to work in either country, many face a long-term crisis imposed by their condition as refugees. “In Syria, we have Iraqi engineers working as waiters, because that’s the only kind of job they can find on the black market,” said Ibrahim, herself exiled in Syria since 2006.
With the “brain drain” of Iraq’s qualified professionals deepening steadily since 2003, questions arose over who would rebuild the country’s institutions. For those remaining in Iraq in spite of the dangers posed by merely practising a profession, the threat of death remained very real even after the withdrawal of US troops in December 2011.


Direct military occupation may no longer be necessary – or possible. But there is a big difference between resisting military occupation and transforming a political system.Under direct military occupation for nine years, Iraq was the world’s bloodiest country for journalists. By the start of 2012, 346 Iraqi media workers had been killed (http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Journalists.htm), according to an international network of anti-war activists, artists, and intellectuals, the Brussells Tribunal. By October 2010, the same organization had documented the killing of 449 academics of multiple disciplines. As a result of the violence, “the Iraqi education system, once the showcase of the Middle East, has virtually collapsed...One in five Iraqis between the ages of 10 and 49 cannot read a simple statement related to daily life,” according to the 2011 Ghent charter in defense of Iraqi academia (http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/ghent-charter-in-defense-of-iraqi-academia.pdf).

One of the most worrying aspects of the degradation suffered in Iraq has been its pervasiveness. The US may have withdrawn its troops. However the violence suffered by the population as a whole, and specifically by the country’s professionals, was so generalized that it perhaps was no longer necessary to enforce the system through a direct military presence. “Iraq today is like living in the dark ages,” said al-Kubeissy. “The militias are running the country, and dictating how people should live their lives. Violence and death are everywhere.”



Eliminating the State

With the threat of partition still looming over the Iraqi nation, powerful militias still actively operating in an atmosphere of impunity, mass death still characterizing daily life, and the dearth of public services pushing new generations further into sectarianism and miseducation, the question of how free Iraq really is in the aftermath of the US military withdrawal is an open one.
The system that the US created, clearly, remains in place. Direct military occupation may no longer be necessary – or possible. But there is a big difference between resisting military occupation and transforming a political system, a difference that is not lost on many Iraqis, some of whom are steeped in efforts to organize civil resistance against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s regime.

Still, as with multiple societies that have suffered colonial oppression and division from the top, there is a long way to go before Iraq can truly celebrate liberation. For those who took part in anti-war demonstrations in 2003 and look forward to progress, rather than watch out for any militaristic fanfare, it may be a good idea to watch for smaller, yet more powerful indicators. It may be that the real celebrations will be held by children, when literacy levels start to inch back up again, or when women feel safe enough to go back to work, or when refugees returning to Iraq from neighboring countries can genuinely say they are glad to have gone back to their homeland. For now, that day has yet to come.




http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/system-death-iii-uprooting-iraqi-state