“Iraq: War & Everyday Life,” a forum for students, was hosted by the Department of Anthropology and the Arab Students Organization on Wednesday night. The forum featured two speakers, Hayder Al-Mohammad, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Mac Skelton, a Ph.D. student of Anthropology at Hopkins.
The discussion focused on life for Iraqis in the wake of two decades of war, economic sanctions and the current rise of ISIS.
Skelton began the conversation by explaining the breakdown of infrastructure in Iraq as a result of the Gulf War. He believed the deterioration of infrastucture is at the heart of the turmoil in Iraq.
“We [Americans] often think of this as a very small event, the Gulf War. For Iraqis, it was not such a thing,” Skelton said. “In early 1991, the response of the U.S. and U.K. coalition of forces [to the invasion of Kuwait] was basically, first and foremost, to hit Iraq’s infrastructure: the roads, bridges, electricity, water treatments, sewage.”
Skelton contended that the most devastating effect of the war was not the damage itself but rather the swiftness of the war.
“People who talk about war will talk about the 1990 Gulf War as the quickest, sort of, total deterioration of the country’s infrastructure,” Skelton said.
Skelton then went on to explain the effects of the post-war sanctions on the Iraqi people.
“The sanctions that are imposed by mostly the U.S., but also other coalition forces under the banner of the UN, [are] a total import-export ban where goods have to flow through this one committee that was sort of this black box. And so, things like chemotherapy agents for hospitals [are] blocked. Throughout the sanctions period from 1990 to 2003, 70 percent of the requests that universities [sent] to the screening committee were blocked. So books, pencils, black- boards — all these kinds of things [were blocked],” Skelton said. “And so [were] hospitals also because medications [that] were obviously blocked are going through a process of deterioration.”
Skelton and Al-Mohammad then opened the floor for questions. The first question they answered focused on the uranium depletion in Iraq, which has allegedly caused a cancer epidemic. The source of the depleted uranium is believed to be American tank-piercing weapons used during the Gulf War that negatively affected the environment.
“A lot of what the U.S. has done is tried to say, ‘Well, if you look at the cancer rates in Iraq, there actually on par with other countries in the region in terms of going up. There’s sort of been a general increase,’” Skelton said. “But you talk to any Iraqi oncologist, what they say is ‘Okay, yes, fine. But why is it that the types of cancer that are associated with radioactivity like leukemia have skyrocketed?’ That hasn’t really entered into the conversation.”
Al-Mohammad then took a question on how the Iraqi people view the West, particularly in light the wars of recent decades. He contended that most Iraqis are more concerned with issues in their day-to-day lives than with conflicts with the West.
“They need to get food. They need to get water for their family. When gas is available, everyone cues up for two or three days to try and get some gas in the car because you don’t know when it’s going to be next available,” Al-Mohammad said. “That’s what they’re in... just to make it to the end of the day. And they [have] to do [it] all over again the next day.”
Al-Mohammad then tackled the question of how ISIS and other terrorist groups have gained such momentum in recent years. He argued that people more often join the groups not because their religious ideology, but because of their successes.
“Once you have a successful terrorist organization or whatever you want to call it, the people will be prepared to join it for various reasons,” Al-Mohammad said.
As the meeting drew to a close, Hayder answered a question regarding America’s role in fighting against ISIS.
“These [American] bombs are killing hundreds and thousands of people. We don’t know who they’re killing. People that are from these areas tend to be civilians, so ISIS is able to recruit even more, not less,” Hayder said.
Freshman Hansel Romero attended the forum and felt that it was very informative. He was on the fence about going until he attended Professor Steven David’s talk about ISIS on Tuesday.
“There was a grad student there that had spoken out against Professor David and what he was teaching. She suggested that if we wanted a more full perspective [on] the conflict and the group and their influence on the region that we should attend this event and she was right. [It] definitely broadened my perspective and offered me more information so I could formulate my opinion,” Romero said. “[The speakers] offered perspectives that we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.”
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