ANother interesting tragedy in the hostory of Iraq is encapsulated in this Reuters article describing the dangers of being a professor in a country where students are willing to issue death threats if they don't get the grades they want, regardless of merit. "High grades or death" is of course a very stupid proposition, but if the brains of the nation are forced to flee to Jordan or further afield in a quest for some kind of sanity, the long-term consequences will be more mullahs and not enough competence to build a middle class, asthmatic markets and limping capital, with consequent poverty and suppressed growth potential.

Try explaining that to an eighteen=year-old with misunderstoods about calculus and a Kalashnikov.

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