Abstract
During World War II, the State, War, and Treasury Departments had years—approximately three years—to plan and prepare for the occupation of Germany and Japan. Despite the absence of presiden¬tial leadership or the changing of administrations, these departments knew what was coming. They knew they’d be called upon to develop a postconflict plan to help stabilize the social, political, and economic order in both countries when the time came. Such was not the case for Iraq during what the Bush administration dubbed the “war on terror.” Serious disagreements arose between state’s Colin Powell and the Defense Department’s Donald Rumsfeld, but in the end no res¬ignations came forward and the idea of invading and occupying Iraq with less than three months of planning prevailed. The administra¬tion alleged a connection between Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda network. It also alleged connections between Hussein and weapons grade nuclear material, or “yellow cake” uranium powder from Nigerian dealers. Although UN inspectors were on the ground, touring and scouring the country for evidence of weapons develop¬ments, the US government, media, and advisors to the president pressed forward. The link connecting the radical, Islamic fundamen¬talist group and the Arab state—that allegedly sought, if not already possessed, weapons of mass destruction—served as the primary pre¬text for the invasion and eventual occupation of Iraq.1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Sources that address the topic of education in Iraq include the following: Pratrap Chatterjee, Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004);
Larry Diamond, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq (New York: Times Books, 2005);
Eric Herring, Iraq in Fragments: The Occupation and Its Legacy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006);
Patrick Cockburn, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (New York: Verso, 2007);
Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007);
John Agresto, Mugged by Reality: The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions (New York: Encounter Books, 2007);
Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008);
James Dobbin, Occupying Iraq: A History of the Coalition Provisional Authority (Santa Monica: Rand, 2009);
Joy Gordon, Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010);
Steven Carlton-Ford and Morten G. Ender, Handbook of War and Society: Iraq and Afghanistan (New York: Routledge, 2011);
Christian Parenti, “Fables of Reconstruction,” The Nation (August 30/September 6, 2004), 16–19.
See also Center for Public Integrity, “Windfalls of War: Creative Associates International, Inc.” (Unpublished document, Washington, DC); Mary Ann Zehr, “Schools Open in Iraq, After Two Week Delay,” Education Week 24 (October 13, 2004);
“Iraq Gets Approval to Control Destiny of School System,” Education Week (April 4, 2004); “Creative Associates Gets New Iraq Contract,” Education Week (July 14, 2004); “World Bank Joins School Rebuilding Campaign,” Education Week (April 14, 2004);Valerie J. Brown, “Reconstructing the Environment in Iraq,” Environmental Health Perspectives 112 (June 2004);
Robin Fields, “Iraq Ministry of Education Withholds Approval for Private Assyrian School,” The Los Angeles Times (February 9, 2005);
David Morris, “Criticism Grows of No-Bid Work for Iraq Reconstruction,” Congress Daily (April 16, 2004);
“Foreign Affairs: Iraq by the Numbers,” Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2004); John Prados, Hoodwinked: The Documents that Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War (New York: The New Press, 2004);
Michael Smerconish, “A Rush to War?,” The Philadelphia Inquirer (February 20, 2011).
Significant insights into life in occupied Iraq from a soldier’s perspective offered in the following: Paul Rieckhoff, Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective (New York: NAL Caliber, 2007);
Kayla Williams, Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006).
Jaqueline Ismael, Tareq Y. Ishmael, and Raymond William Baker, “Iraq and Human Development: Culture, Education, and the Globalization of Hope,” Arab Studies Quarterly 26 (2004), 49–66;
Brian Whitaker, “Free to Do Bad Things,” The Guardian, April 12, 2003.
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed of June 20, 2003, Bremer announced his intentions of conducting a “wholesale reallocation of resources and people from state control to private enterprise” in Iraq; Morris, “Criticism Grows of No-Bid Work,” 3; Assistant Inspector General Bruce N. Crandlemire to Wendy Chamberlin and Timothy T. Beans, June 6, 2003, Office of the Inspector General, “USAID’s Compliance with Federal Regulations in Awarding the Iraq Education Sector Contract,” USAID (Memorandum, 03–001), 3, 8, 4; Timothy T. Beans and Wendy Chamberlin to Everett Mosely, Henry L. Barrett, and Bruce N. Crandlemire, June 23, 2003, Management Bureau, Office of Procurement, “USAID Compliance with Federal Regulations in Awarding the Iraq Education Contract: IG Review No. EDG-C-00–03–00011–00,” USAID (Unnumbered Memorandum), 7, 2; on crony capitalism, see Chatterjee, Iraq, Inc .; and Allison Stranger, One Nation under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009);
on Bremer and free-market ideology, see Michael Schwartz, War without End: The Iraq War in Context (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2008), 38.
Kenneth J. Saltman, “Creative Associates International: Corporate Education and ‘Democracy Promotion’ in Iraq,” The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 28 (2006), 35, 37, 40–42.
Carter Dougherty, “Building Democracies, Free Market for a Small Profit: D.C. Executive Combines Business Consultancy with Community Ideals,” Washington Times (May 14, 2001); Center for Public Integrity, “Windfalls of War: Creative Associates International” (Unpublished Document, Washington, DC).
Ismael et al., “Iraq and Human Development,” 56–57; Delwin A. Roy, “The Educational System of Iraq,” Middle Eastern Studies 29 (1993), 167–197;
Office of Inspector General, “Follow-up Audit of USAID/Iraq’s Education Activities [Audit Report No. E-267–07–003-P]” (February 4, 2007), 1–11; Dennis J. Halliday, The Impact of the UN Sanctions on the People of Iraq (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999);
Christina Asquith, “Turning the Page on Iraq’s History,” Christian Science Monitor (November 4, 2003);
Agustin V. De Santisteban, “Sanctions, War, Occupation and the De-Development of Education in Iraq,” International Review of Education 51 (2005), 60–63;
on the politicization of Iraq’s texts under the Ba’athist regime, see Jonathan Zimmerman, “Iraq’s Textbooks—and Ours,” Washington Post (July 13, 2003).
Stephen Phillips, “Post-War Contracts Attacked,” The Times Educational Supplement (April 4, 2003); US Agency for International Development, “Creative Associates”; Center for Public Integrity, “Windfalls of War: Creative Associates International, Inc.” (Unpublished Document, Washington, DC).
Kenneth J. Saltman, “Corporate Education and “Democracy Promotion Overseas: The Case of Creative Associates International in Iraq, 2003–4,” in Noah Sobe, ed., American Post-Conflict Educational Reform: From the Spanish-American War to Iraq (New York: Palgrave, 2009), 240–241.
Inspector General, “Audit of USAID/Iraq’s Basic Education Activities,” 3; Inspector General, “Follow-up,” 2; “Foreign Affairs: Iraq by the Numbers,” Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2004), 60; Zehr, “Schools Open in Iraq,” 6–7.
John Ehrenberg, J. Patrice McSherry, Jose Ramon Sanchez, and Caroleen Marji Sayej, eds., The Iraq Papers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 1977–198;
Sheryl Tappan, Shock and Awe in Fort Worth: How the U.S. Army Rigged the ‘Free and Open Competition’ to Replace Halliburton’s Sole Source Oil Field in Iraq (San Mateo: CA, Pourquoi Press, 2004), 18;
Jim Landers, “Author Says Pentagon Favored Halliburton Houston Firm Joins Corps of Engineers in Defending Contracts,” Dallas Morning News (September 11, 2004).
Robin Fields, “Iraq Ministry of Education Withholds Approval for Private Assyrian School” Los Angeles Times (February 9, 2005).
David Bacon, “Unionbusting, Iraqi-Style,” Middle East Online (October 10, 2010);
Saba Jerges, “Iraqi Oil Workers Postpone May 10 Strike, Deliver Ultimatum on Pay, Profit-Sharing,” Platts Oilgram News (May 11, 2007);
Danny Fortson, “Oil Giants are Itching to Invade Iraq: The Big Players Have Been Shut Out Since Nationalisation in 1972, Now They See Their chance to Get In,” The Sunday Times [London] (December 28, 2008).
Copyright information
© 2012 A. J. Angulo
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Angulo, A.J. (2012). Private Matter. In: Empire and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024534_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024534_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-02452-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-02453-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Education CollectionEducation (R0)