Last November, CAUT issued a statement on possible military intervention in Iraq by the United States and its allies. We expressed our view that Canada should remain committed to a UN-based process in dealing with the regime in Iraq. We expressed our belief that the U.S. or any nation taking military action independent of the UN could lead to catastrophic outcomes. As well, we stated that unilateral military action without the approval of the UN Security Council contravened the UN Charter. We advanced this position from CAUT's perspective as an organization of scholars and academics committed to resolving disputes through reason, knowledge and understanding, and not through violence.

Regrettably, the U.S. and its allies did invade Iraq without UN support. The Canadian government and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien adopted a principled position in not having Canada participate in the war on Iraq without UN approval for that action. The prime minister and his government should be congratulated for maintaining this position against enormous pressure from vested interests. Hardly a day went by during the war without newspaper attacks on the government for its position, and without reporting that resembled cheerleading for the U.S. rather than observation.

The best statement on many of these news reports and commentaries was made by Patricia Pearson, the granddaughter of Lester B. Pearson, who quit her position as a columnist for the National Post when she felt the Post's biased coverage of the war on Iraq went too far and was doing Canada harm. "I cannot sit back and watch this nation attacked, relentlessly and viciously, by a newspaper that would trash so much of what we believe in, from tolerant social values to international law, belittling us for having our beliefs, while turning around and saying that what makes America great is Americans' ardour in defending their beliefs," she wrote in the Globe and Mail on April 19.

The war has had severe social, economic and cultural consequences for Iraq as well as for the international community. The most grievous is the death of thousands of people. The number of innocent Iraqi children and civilians killed in the war has yet to be reported. We do know that more than 200,000 Iraqis died in the aerial bombardment in the 1991 Gulf war, with another 170,000 children, as estimated by UNICEF, dying in the aftermath of the war owing to the destruction of the alimentary infrastructure and economic sanctions placed on Iraq.

We do know the devastation the war has caused to Iraqi cities, to its universities and to its cultural institutions, particularly Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities and its National Library. The loss of important cultural artifacts through looting or wanton destruction is a loss for the history of all human civilization. Every academic discipline is affected by these losses.

We care deeply about both the loss of human life and the destruction of our cultural heritage. The looting and pillaging of the museum and library were foreseen, as many provincial museums had been looted following the Gulf war. In the months preceding the invasion, museum directors and curators from around the world asked the Pentagon and U.S. government officials to put in place measures that would safeguard Iraq's cultural heritage.

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell to urge the U.S. to "safeguard ... the national Museum of Iraq." He also called upon U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to "strongly urge the coalition forces to take full responsibility for safeguarding Iraq's remaining museum collections and monuments."

Martin Sullivan, chairman of the U.S. President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, resigned in protest. In resigning, Sullivan wrote: "The tragedy was foreseeable and preventable ... (it) was not prevented, due to our nation's inaction."

Sullivan also made the point in his resignation letter that, "While our military forces have displayed extraordinary precision and restraint in deploying arms - and apparently in securing the Oil Ministry and oil fields - they have been nothing short of impotent in failing to attend to the protection of (Iraq's) cultural heritage." Mr. Sullivan could also have noted the rapidity of the coalition forces in securing $1 billion in gold bullion while the looting was in progress.

Apologists for the failure of the U.S. and Britain to secure the cultural sites rest their case on the grounds that much of the looting was organized theft. What the apologists ignore is that both the U.S. and Britain are signatories of both the Geneva and Hague conventions. The former requires occupying armies to prevent "pillaging." The Hague Convention deals specifically with the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. It requires signatories to safeguard and preserve the cultural property of occupied countries. When an occupying force takes over another country it becomes responsible for the protection of that country's people, property and institutions. Both the U.S. and Britain failed to meet their obligations under these treaties and international law.

The war has seriously damaged Iraq's universities, which were once the pride of the Arab world. This damage has compounded the atrocities and perversions foisted on Iraqi scholars and universities by Saddam Hussein's regime. The University of Basra and the University of Tikrit were looted, the University of Baghdad was the scene of armed combat, and there is a huge crater in the midst of Al-Mustansiriya University.

The American government plans to control the reconstruction of Iraq's educational infrastructure through its Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, some American philanthropic organizations are reluctant to become involved in this reconstruction as they see higher education based on academic independence and not "mechanisms of control" or as being compatible with a military occupation.

In response to these events, it is imperative that the Canadian government work through the United Nations to end the military occupation of Iraq and to place the reconstruction of that country into the hands of the UN and through it, the Iraqi people. In addition to providing peacekeepers, the Canadian government should assist in humanitarian efforts and the reconstruction of Iraq's cultural institutions and universities. As academics, we must be concerned about more than just our own academic freedom and welfare.