In Bid to Shape a Postwar Iraq, U.S. Goes by the Schoolbook

Iraqi textbooks, such as this one for sixth-graders, tout Iraqi weaponry and war prowess and cite the United States as an enemy. A U.S. effort is aimed at demilitarizing the curriculum. (Iraqi Textbook Courtesy Of Phebe Marr)

By David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff writers
Sunday, April 6, 2003;When the new Iraqi school year begins in five months, the Bush administration hopes to have in place wholesale revisions to textbooks that have taught a generation of Iraqis to be ready to die for Saddam Hussein.
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The revisions are part of an ambitious U.S. effort to demilitarize a school curriculum that has touted Iraqi battlefield prowess and weaponry and demonized the United States as a fearsome enemy.
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The groups promise children money, prestige and higher school grades, which translate into greater opportunity in Iraqi society. Members wear camouflage fatigues while practicing marksmanship. They hurl dummy grenades, march in formation and take turns dashing through flames.

"They learn to adulate Saddam Hussein as a person," the report says. "A Cub may speak out spontaneously, denouncing his parents, neighbors or friends, and denunciation becomes systemic as the Cub grows older. . . .

"A child whose father has died or gone missing is considered a perfect target to become not only a Cub but also a future Fedayeen."

Suwaij, who moved to the United States a decade ago, believes that many of the fanatical guerrilla fighters are orphans adopted and then seduced by the state. Children born out of wedlock also must rely on the Baath Party for sustenance and education.

"They leave them in the garbage," she said of such outcasts, who are then recruited by the youth groups. "They don't have families. These kids, they don't know anything about the world, except that Saddam is the one who is giving them money, who is giving them shelter."