Captured by the Quagmire: Iraq&apos;s Lost Generation and the Prospects for Children across the Arab Region Today

Ismael, Shireen T.

doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.41.3.0221

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Arab Studies Quarterly

Volume 41, Issue 3

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Captured by the Quagmire: Iraq's Lost Generation and the Prospects for Children across the Arab Region Today

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Author(s): Shireen T. Ismael

Publication date (Print): 1 July 2019

Journal: Arab Studies Quarterly

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: regime change, children, education, refugees, healthcare, Iraq occupation, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen

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Abstract

Increasing legibility is now available through NGO and U.N. data, which has been collected across Iraq, for an assessment of the contemporary state of social welfare amongst Iraqi children and the residual effects of the regime change that took place in 2003. This data will be examined, contextualized to the post-2003 period and the potential for theory-building will be explored. The picture that emerges suggests the level of humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the U.S.-led 2003 invasion and occupation recommends further interrogation of the policy of ‘regime change’ for its role in informing U.S. actions. Additionally, such catastrophic humanitarian outcomes lead to questions surrounding future use of regime change efforts. The Iraqi case exhibits the destruction of the state apparatus, with social and cultural institutions built from Iraq's 1932 independence, rather than a direct replacement of those ruling the state. Iraqi children, not yet born when the 2003 invasion took place, have borne the brunt of the Iraqi state's destruction, with an absence of care from those who carried out the change in regime.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50005550

Journal ID (jcode): arabstudquar

Title: Arab Studies Quarterly

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 0271-3519

ISSN: 2043-6920

Publication date (Print): 1 July 2019

Volume: 41

Issue: 3 ( doiID: 10.13169/arabstudquar.41.issue-3 )

Pages: 221-234

Article

Publisher ID: arabstudquar.41.3.0221

DOI: 10.13169/arabstudquar.41.3.0221

SO-VID: 17318f38-8fc1-44a5-b9fd-5289566a135d

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Custom metadata

lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Social & Behavioral Sciences

Keywords: Iraq,Syria,Yemen,healthcare,regime change,Iraq occupation,children,Libya,refugees,education

References

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Abrahams, Fred (2014). “From Schools to Shelters in Iraq,” Human Rights Watch, (September 9, 2014), available http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/09/schools-shelters-iraq accessed March 28, 2019.

[2] Alnasrawi, Abbas (2002). Iraq's Burdens: Oil, Sanctions, and Underdevelopment. Westport, CT: Praeger.

[3] Amnesty International (AI). (February 2005). Iraq: Decades of suffering — Now women deserve better. (London, U.K.), available from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mdel4/001/2005/en/ accessed April 1, 2019.

[4] Al-Obaidi, Abdul Kareem, Boris Budosan and Linda Jeffrey (2010). “Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Iraq: Current Situation and Scope for Promotion of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy.” Intervention Vol. 8, No. 1, 40-51.

[5] Aruni, Naseer (2003). “America's War Against Iraq: 1990-2002.” In Iraq Under Siege, Updated Edition: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War, ed. Anthony Arnove. Boston, MA: South End Press, 35-52. Bacevich, Andrew (2016). America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History. New York: Random House.

[6] Baker, Yousef K. (2014). “Global Capitalism and Iraq: The Making of a Neoliberal State.” International Review of Modern Sociology Vol. 40, No. 2 (Autumn), 121-148.

[7] Baker, Raymond W., Tareq Y. Ismael and Shereen T. Ismael (2009). “Ending the Iraqi State.” In Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered, eds. Raymond W. Baker, Tareq Y. Ismael and Shereen T. Ismael. London: Pluto Press.

[8] Bensahel, Nora, Olga Oliker, Keith Crane, Richard R. Brennan and Heather S. Gregg (2008). “After Saddam: Prewar Planning and the Occupation of Iraq.” Santa Monica, CA: Rand Publishing. Available: https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG642.html accessed March 23, 2019.

[9] Bolger, Daniel P. (2014). Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. New York: Mariner Books.

[10] Falk, Richard, Irene Gendzier and Robert Jay Lifton (eds.) (2006). Crimes of War: Iraq. New York: Bold Type Books.

[11] Gordon, J. (2010). Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.

[12] Haass, Richard N. (2009). War of Necessity. War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[13] Herring, Eric (2008). “Whose Peace? Critical Perspectives on the Political Economy of Peacebuilding.” In Neoliberalism Versus Peacebuilding in Iraq, eds. Pugh, M., Cooper, N., and Turner, M. London: Palgrave, 47-64.

[14] Ismael, Shereen T. (2008). “The Lost Generation of Iraq: Children in the Crossfire.” International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (now: Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World) Vol. 2, No. 2 (October), 151-164.

[15] Ismael, Tareq (2015). Iraq in the Twenty-First Century: Regime Change and the Making of a Failed State. New York: Routledge.

[16] Kinzer, Stephen (2010). Reset Middle East: Old Friends and New Alliances. London: I. B. Tauris & Company.

[17] Kinzer, Stephen (2007). Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. New York: Times Books.

[18] Klein, Naomi (2009). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Vintage Canada.

[19] Kobler, Martin (2012). “People With Different Abilities,” United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, (December 20, 2012), available http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/people-different-abilities accessed March 28, 2019.

[20] Kramer, Ronald, Raymond Michalowski and Dawn Rothe (2005). “’The Supreme International Crime’: How the U.S. War in Iraq Threatens the Rule of Law.” Social Justice Vol. 32, No. 2, 52-81.

[21] Lebovic, James H. (2019). Planning to Fail: The US Wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. New York: Oxford University Press.

[22] Loewenstein, Antony (2015). Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe. London: Verso.

[23] MADRE, Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) and The International Women's Human Right Clinic, City University of New York School of Law. (2015). Protecting the Rights of Children in Iraq. (Geneva).

[24] Mahajan, Rahul (2001). “We Think the Price Is Worth It,” FAIR — Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, available https://fair.org/extra/we-think-the-price-is-worth-it/ accessed March 23, 2019.

[25] Mann, James (2004). Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet. New York: Penguin Books.

[26] McCoy, Alfred W. (2017). In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

[27] Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). (March 5, 2010). Prostitution and Trafficking of Women and Girls in Iraq. (Baghdad, Iraq).

[28] Parker, Ben (2018). “Emergency Aid Funding Fell in 2017, Even as Syria/Yemen Wars Drove Needs Higher.” The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) (15 May 2018).

[29] Sassoon, Joseph (2008). The Iraqi Refugees: The New Crisis in the Middle East. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

[30] Save the Children. (2017). An Unbearable Reality: The Impact of War and Displacement on Children's Mental Health in Iraq. London, UK.

[31] Shadid, Anthony (2006). Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War. New York: Henry Holt and Co.

[32] Sjursen, Daniel A. (2015). Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. Lebanon, NH: ForeEdge — University Press of New England.

[33] Sky, Emma (2015). The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. New York: Public Affairs.

[34] Tripp, Charles (2007). A History of Iraq, 3rd Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

[35] UNICEF (December 2018). “Iraq Humanitarian Situation Report.” UNICEF, available https://www.unicef.org/iraq/reports/iraq-humanitarian-situation-report-december-2018, accessed March 30, 2019.

[36] UNICEF (2017a). “An Analysis of Child Poverty Trends and Policy Recommendations for the National Poverty Reduction Strategy 2017-2021.” UNICEF Iraq Social Policy Section (January 2017), available https://www.unicef.org/iraq/reports/child-poverty-iraq accessed March 29, 2019.

[37] UNICEF (2017b). “The cost and benefit of education in Iraq.” UNICEF, available https://www.unicef.org/iraq/reports/cost-and-benefit-education-iraq, accessed March 29, 2019.

[38] United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (16 December 2018). “2019 Iraq Humanitarian Needs Overview.” Available https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/iraq/document/2019-iraq-humanitarian-needs-overview, accessed March 31,2019.

[39] United Nations, Security Council (1991). “The Impact of War on Iraq: Report to the Secretary-General on Humanitarian Needs in Iraq in the Immediate Post-crisis Environment” by a Mission to the Area Led by Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, S/22322 (20 March, 1991), available from https://www.un.org/Depts/oip/background/reports/s22366.pdf, accessed March 27, 2019.

[40] Van Buren, Peter (2011). We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. New York: Metropolitan Books.

[41] von Sponeck, H. C. (2006). A Different Kind of War: The UN Sanctions Regime in Iraq. New York: Berghahn Books.

[42] Walt, Stephen M. (2018). The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[43] Westad, Odd Arne (2005). The Global Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press.