History Revised: Saddam Vanishes from Schoolbooks

[buzzsaw_23]

History revised: Saddam vanishes from schoolbooks
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
September 13, 2005


Iraq's children have returned to school for the start of a fresh academic year with a new syllabus that has all but erased Saddam Hussein from its history.

After two years of debate, the education department has completed textbooks to replace those that portrayed the past purely from a Baathist view.

However, in a tribute to the sensitivities of post-Saddam Iraq, the revised version of history is, on some subjects, as partial and shot through with gaps as the old.
Baghdad no longer wins the Iran-Iraq war nor confronts the evil of Zionism alone. Primary schools will not have to teach reading with phrases such as "I love Saddam"

<snip>

There is no mention of the 1991 Gulf war, about which it was previously taught that "brave Iraqis forced the Americans to stop firing". The events of 2003 are described only as a "major shake-up" of Iraq

http://smh.com.au/news/world/history-revised-saddam-vanishes-from-schoolbooks/2005/09/12/1126377257168.html

[JuniperLea]

1. Those who do not remember history are damned to repeat it

Good God!

Oh well, history books in the US are going to be revisionist as well... I remember history being a favorite subject, but it wasn't until I was out of high school that I learned of the holocost... I was pissed we were never told of it.

[ovidsen]

9. get OUT!!!

You were never taught about the Holocaust until you were out of high school? Where did you live? How old are you??

I am in my 50s, and went to public schools in upstate NY, E. PA., and N. IL. (Only a smattering of Jewish families, if you get my drift) and I can't remember not being taught about concentration camps, or Hitler's "Final Solution", or "The Diary of Anne Frank". WWII vets who spoke to us talked of Pearl Harbor, Tojo, Hiroshima, Hitler, D-Day... and the concentration camps.

Maybe it's my experience that was unusual. Any comments are welcome.

[sandnsea]

14. Me and my kids too

Ages 47 (me), kids 29, 26, 21 and 19. So I don't know what the deal is with this other poster. Be interesting to hear when and how it happened.

[JuniperLea]

17. Which school district victimized you, sandnsea?

I seriously feel like suing the Los Angeles School District because of their failure. But that would only serve to victimize current victims in their grasp. Bastards.

[sandnsea]

21. Misunderstood

I was saying me and my kids had all learned about the holocaust. I was educated in California, them in Montana and Oregon. Sorry about your sad situation, it truly sucks.

[Maine-ah]

15. they didn't teach us about Vietnam.

I graduated in 1993.

[JusticeForAll]

22. Our history is pretty much cleansed

of all that nasty stuff too.

I graduated HS in 1989, in suburban Philadelphia.

Teachers would refer to these events sometimes (Holocaust, Vietnam), but conveniently, American History ended at the Depression. Other than slavery, America hasn't ever done much wrong, is what we were taught.

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

27. ditto

my history classes stopped with V-J day.


Graduated in 2000.

[JuniperLea]

16. Los Angeles Unified School District

Victim here... 48 years old. Disgusting, isn't it?

I only learned of the holocaust when my friend's father, who ran an underground railroad assisting Jews in Holland, made my friend and I sit and watch a documentary. People magazine interviewed him in the late 70's. So, I'd say, despite my victimization from the LAUSD, I'm fairly well versed on the topic now. Thanks to Mr. Bochove!

[ovidsen]

24. Yes, disgusting. And sad.

I would not have thought that Los Angeles public schools would have glossed over the Holocaust, but you were there, and I believe you.

And let me express my gratitude to people like Mr. Bochove, and all those like him. We must never forget.

[LostinVA]

20. I'm 40, grew up in Southern NJ

And can't remember NOT knowing about it. We learned about it in second or third grade. We did have a decent (although not huge)number of Jewish families. One of my friend's grandmother had a tattoo on her arm, and I remember asking about it when I was very little, and being told a version a three-year-old could understand.

[progressivebydesign]

26. I went to school in Temple City, Calif. outside LA.

We were taught all about the Holocaust in 7th grade, the civil rights struggle, and vietnam. I think I went to a progressive public school... all my teachers were very liberal and informative.

[fujiyama]

2. If that was a "major shake up"

this is simply a major colossal fuck up.

Maybe they can just go ahead and replace "I love Saddam" with "I love Bush".

[enigma000]

3. phrases such as "I love Saddam"

Primary schools will not have to teach reading with phrases such as "I love Saddam".

Well, he really thought highly of himself.

[Ernesto]

4. Hi buzz! Welcome aboard!

Good post. Nuthin' like a little revisionist history to keep control of the people. chimpco is teaching his puppets to twist the facts quite nicely.

[buzzsaw_23]

5. 'preciate the welcome

Enjoyin' me self here tryin' to keep the history cookin', prevent the BS from becoming the truth and hopin' to lay it down simple.

The problem goes back to when the powers, beauties, and deep knowledges of the age-old women's traditions were supplanted by military-caste mystiques & the accumulation of heavy metals

From d.a. levy
"Really"
                     the police try to protect
                     the banks - and everything else
                     is secondary"

:toast:

[Igel]

6. I can come up with too many possible reasons for this.

Not just the "* made'm do it" scenario.

Consider why Stalin was mostly vanished from the textbooks, with replacement pages glued over them, or photos doctored to remove him. Difficult talking about the 1930s-50s without him. American didn't make 'm drop Uncle Joe.

It made the party line look bad. Plus, in retrospect, it was a huge embarrassment, too many unanswerable questions, too many hurt feelings. It offended those that hated him and those that loved him in equal measure.

[deadparrot]

7. This is wrong.

These people need to be taught about what Hussein did. Not to mention about what's going on now. No, I'm not saying to teach the kids how to read with "I love Saddam," but don't just wipe that era away like it never happened. That's just as big a disservice to the Iraqi people. If you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it.

[WhiteTara]

8. wow! the students must be suffering from

cognitive dissonance.

[shadowknows69]

10. On the first day

Bush created Iraq and he saw that is was good so he said "Mission accomplished" and it was accomplished.
On the second day the Iraqi Civil War began and Bush still thought it was good.

[slay]

11. Just the latest lies and propaganda being taught to children

Move along - nothing to see here.

[NYC]

12. Are these history books located in the fiction section of the library?

What is the point of learning history if you don't learn it accurately?

[daleo]

13. "Let Freedom Reign", thought Winston Smith Ali

as he carefully blotted out all references to the Hussein era, and replaced them with "Hail Bush".

[Solly Mack]

18. Who is writing the textbooks?

Wasn't there a news article several months back that said American sources were?


Regardless of who did the (re)writing, teaching false history has never benefited a society - in fact, it's done quite the opposite.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. How perfectly Stalinist.

[pinniped]

23. In a way I would like * to be erased from the history books...

but people will want to know who was responsible for all these clusterfucks.

Keep the sorry POS in.

I think the ancient Egyptians used to erase people.

[progressivebydesign]

25. That's freakin' ridiculous.

He was the leader for years and years, for good or bad. Unbelievable that they'd cut that out of there.. any mention in the books as to who might have been in charge during those years? The Easter Bunny? Rummy? Bush?