Cultural Cleansing in Iraq

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.

'If you are looking for a textbook that provides a view of Middle East politics free of colonial bias, [this] book plainly fulfil this fundamental requirement'

Raymond William Baker is Professor of International Politics, Trinity College, USA, and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo. His books include Cultural Cleansing in Iraq (Pluto, 2009) and Islam Without Fear (Harvard University Press, 2006). 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 (UAP, 2006), she is the co-editor of Cultural Cleansing in Iraq (Pluto, 2009). Tareq Y. Ismael is Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada and President of the International Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University. His most recent works include Middle Cultural Cleansing in Iraq (Pluto, 2009), The Iraqi Predicament (Pluto, 2004) and Iraq (Pluto, 2003).