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The formal education system in Iraq has been significantly disrupted over the last several years as a result of conflict and displacement. Damaged infrastructure, limited investment in teachers and curriculum, ongoing waves of displacement, and nationwide Covid-19 school closures have had a detrimental impact on access to and quality of education. Learning levels in Iraq are among the lowest in the region and a lack of education is consistently the top protection risk for Iraqi children.

A generation of young people now face an increasingly uncertain future in Iraq, particularly among the most vulnerable that include refugee children, displaced children, and children with disabilities.

To address these gaps, the Education Consortium of Iraq (ECI) - comprising the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Save the Children (Save), Mercy Corps (MC), and Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) - conducted a research study to better understand the barriers in the provision of inclusive and equitable formal education. Data collection encompassed a school infrastructure assessment, 39 key informant interviews with local and international NGO and UN staff, community leaders and Ministry of Education (MoE) and Departments of Education (DoE) staff, as well as 41 focus group discussions with teachers, parents and children across Anbar, Diyala, Dohuk, Kirkuk, Ninewa, and Salah ad-Din governorates.

The report found that teacher training has been insufficient as teachers have not had any training in pedagogy or lesson planning in more than 60 percent of schools in Anbar, Duhok, and Kirkuk. Teacher recruitment has also lulled as the student to teacher ratio averages 32 to 1 across governorates. In Ninewa, there is one teacher for every 57 students, which greatly impacts the quality of learning.

The report also found:

More than half of schools surveyed need to be rehabilitated to meet basic hygiene and safety standards

More than 90 percent of schools surveyed in Kirkuk lack drinking water

92 per cent of schools lacked ramps or elevators for children with disabilities

3.6 per cent of students dropped out of the 2020-2021 school year, which amounts to thousands leaving their education

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Gaps in Formal Education in Iraq - Education Consortium of Iraq (December 2021) - Iraq - ReliefWeb

Lee Wolfgram (center) in Ukraine (Supplied)

(FOX 9) - A Twin Cities attorney and retired military veteran recently returned from the trip of a lifetime to assist a fellow soldier in Ukraine. The two served side-by-side in Iraq. This time around, the Minnesotan flew into a war zone to help the Ukrainian get his critical life possessions out of harms way.

"I was using my military training to assist a military friend. I guess that's how I would characterize it," Lee Wolfgram explained to FOX 9s Paul Blume. "You know that the mission was playing like a military operation. It was coordinated like a military operation, had objectives, like a military operation. So we just executed like we would if we were on official duty with the benefit of having the freedom of on being my own commander."

A Twin Cities attorney and retired military veteran recently returned from the trip of a lifetime to assist a fellow soldier in Ukraine. The two served side-by-side in Iraq. And this Minnesotan just flew into a war zone to help the Ukrainian get his critical life possessions out of harms way.

Wolfgram documented his mission on his Facebook page with various video clips from the journey. In one video, air raid sirens can be heard with explosions going off within a couple miles of their location.

Wolfgram is seen with a couple of Ukrainian soldiers over dinner, trying to keep the moment light, "I think if we werent soldiers, wed be running for the basement."

While serving with a multinational force in Iraq nearly 20 years ago, Wolfgram formed a lifelong bond with several fellow soldiers including a Ukrainian Wolfgram will only identify by his rank and first name for security reasons, Lieutenant Colonel Borys. He reports that Borys served as his interpreter.

"Yeah, my battle buddy, you know. The same guy that stood by me in Iraq. You know, I was really emotional about the fact that when I went to Iraq, this guy showing up next to me and now he's in trouble and he needs help. And he had just mentioned to me his concerns, and I'm like, I think we could develop a plan. I think we could do this. And so that's where the concept of the operation came from."

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Wolfgram said Borys was able to get his family including a wife and young son out of danger, via train to the Netherlands in northwestern Europe.

But only with what they could pack in a couple of suitcases.

Borys, who is from Odessa, the major port city in the south of Ukraine, remained behind to do his part and defend the country.

"These people are like anybody else that you would meet a friend. You know, they've got jobs, they've got children's school, you know, all that stuff. They're just like us, you know, so they get up in the morning, go to work like everybody else. And then one day the whole country is being attacked, you know? So it's yeah, it's terribly sad to see all of that," Wolfgram said.

While Odessa has remained relatively safe from the deadly onslaught playing out elsewhere across Ukraine, Borys wanted to get his car and critical valuables to his loved ones some 1,500 miles away given the unpredictability of the war.

And thats where Wolfgram came in.

He found an open week in his schedule after a court case settled and mapped out the operation. He took off from MSP, eventually finding his way to Moldova, and a bus journey across fortified borders and armed checkpoints, before reconnecting with his long-time friend in Odessa for a quick overnight.

They then packed up Borys car and made a 40-plus hour trek across the heart of Europe.

Wolfgram described the reunion near the Dutch city of Utrecht as priceless.

"It was a wrap your arms and twirl around kind of thing," said Wolfgram. "Really great to see. And they were very happy, of course."

In one final touching twist, Borys loved ones are staying with another fellow soldier from the joint-multinational deployment in Iraq, a Dutch family.

Wolfgram flew home to Minneapolis on Wednesday. Borys apparently had a 10-day pass to make this reunion with his family and take care of personal affairs. At last report, he was on his way back to Ukraine and his military duties.

"I do realize it was a pretty bold move," concluded Wolfgram, about his whirlwind trek to help a fellow soldier and friend. "But it was the timing. That's when it had to happen. It wasn't really all we had planned for that, and it had to happen, and it went off well."

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Twin Cities man flies to Ukraine to help fellow soldier he fought with in Iraq - FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul

A dust storm has swept through much of Iraq, leaving dozens of people in hospital with respiratory problems, a health ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.

The storm formed in the north of the country on Thursday, prompting the cancellation of flights serving Erbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.

As the storm swept south, it shrouded Baghdad and cities as far south as Nasiriyah in a ghostly orange.

In the capital, buildings and vehicles were covered in ochre-coloured dust, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists reported.

The storm has caused dozens of hospitalisations across Iraq due to respiratory problems, health ministry spokesperson Saif al-Badr told AFP.

The director of Iraqs meteorological office, Amer al-Jabri, said that while dust storms were not uncommon in Iraq, they were becoming more frequent due to drought, desertification and declining rainfall.

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate breakdown, and has experience record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

Experts have said these factors threaten social and economic disaster in the war-scarred country.

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20% drop in water resources by 2050 due to the climate crisis.

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Dozens hospitalised as Iraq engulfed by dust storm | Iraq | The Guardian

On May 12, 2018, Iraqis went to the polls to elect a new government. Then, as now, political maneuvering consumed months as Iraqis sought first to select a speaker, then a president, and finally a prime minister. Behind the scenes, individuals and party leaders engaged in political horse-trading and brinkmanship, while diplomats from Washington and Tehran sought to ensure that candidates more sympathetic to their interests, if not worldview, found their way into top positions.

During the struggle to form a new government in 2018, Brett McGurk was the U.S. special envoy to counter the Islamic State. But, by dint of his experience in Iraq and personal relationships with Iraqi politicians across the political spectrum, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo relied on him to shape U.S. Iraq policy. While the Americans, Europeans, Arabs, and Iranians all largely agreed that Barham Salih was the most capable and politically moderate candidate, McGurk urged Iraqi politicians to choose Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani. Fuads achievements were negligible, and Iraqis perceived his capabilities as lackluster. According to Iraqis present in the meetings, McGurks reasoning was that picking anyone besides Barzanis man would lead Barzani to undermine the broader Iraqi system. This was no idle concern; the year before, Barzani, his uncle, Hoshyar Zebari, and his son Masrour had held an independence referendum across both Iraqi Kurdistan and disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.

For almost twenty years, the State Department has allowed its fear of Barzanis intransigence to shape American policy in Iraq. In the era of the Coalition Provisional Authority, some current and former U.S. government officials used their contacts in the State Department or Pentagon to run interference for the Barzanis while simultaneously pursuing their own personal business interests. Many other diplomats and military officersa notable exception being David Petraeus, the commander of the 101st Airborne at the timewould undermine or soft-pedal efforts to instill democracy or punish corruption for fear of upsetting Barzani.

While other Iraqi political leaders would meet high-profile American leaders in Baghdad, Barzani demanded they visit him at his cliff-top palace complex outside of Erbil. The fact that many did allowed Barzani to depict Americans as supplicants. Ironically, assuaging Barzani in this way only increased his ego and sense of entitlement.

This deference to Barzani did not serve U.S. interests. Russian firms benefited disproportionately from Kurdish oil, and both Masoud and Nechirvan Barzani leaked word of impending operations to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Masrour Barzanithe regional governments current prime ministeris best known among U.S. intelligence authorities for pestering them on citizenship issues for family members and requests for other inappropriate personal favors.

Nor has this deference brought regional stability. Nearly two decades after Saddams fall, Iraq needs talent. Barzanis nepotismand U.S. deference to itundercuts recognition of that talent by signaling that only the Barzanis are capable. This is one of the reasons why, in November 2021, so many Iraqi Kurds traveled to Belarusmany dying en routein order to try to cross into Poland. Likewise, those who drowned in the English Channel last November were not refugees fleeing war, but rather Iraqi Kurds seeking to escape the Barzanis regime of corruption. It is quite telling when supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers often engage in corruption, criticize Sadr for the unseemliness of a political alliance with a family as corrupt as the Barzanis.

To look at the problem from the opposite perspective, it is clear that a willingness to stand up to the Barzanis at any point from 2003 to the present would have very likely bolstered Iraqs stability. There are legitimate reasons to criticize Barham Salihthe people of Sulaymaniyah, his hometown, are not shy about doing sobut the United States is lucky that McGurks maneuvering failed in 2018. There is simply no way Fuad Hussein could have navigated Iraq through the crisis of nationwide protests, the aftermath of Qassem Suleimanis assassination, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Nor would he have been able to advance Iraq on the world stage in the way that Barham did. Moreover, Barzani proxies would have been unable to act and be accepted as an honest broker by Iraqs various sectarian, ethnic, and political constituencies, let alone Washington, Tehran, Abu Dhabi, and Ankara.

As McGurk, newly-confirmed ambassador to Iraq Alina Rominowski, and others in the White House, State Department, Pentagon, and CIA work to help Iraq secure itself and set itself on a trajectory for economic stability, it is essential that they stop allowing fear of Barzani intransigence undermine U.S. interests and Iraqs future. It is time to call Barzanis bluff and allow him to retire into the dustbin of history where he belongs.

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Image: Reuters.

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The United States Must Stand Up to Barzani Blackmail in Iraq - The National Interest Online

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It's not 2003 and Iraq all over again | Guest Column | wyomingnews.com - Wyoming Tribune