In an Orwellian twist, reminiscent of 1984, Iraq's children returned to school this week with a new syllabus that has effectively erased Saddam Hussein from its history.
The education department has replaced the old Baathist textbooks with a new set, that present a different version of history.
It is often said that history is written by the victors.
In the new version of the past, Baghdad no longer wins the Iran-Iraq war nor confronts the "evil" of Zionism alone.
The old requirement of instructing primary school children to learn such "catchy" phrases as "I love Saddam", is now forbidden.
Saddam is now rarely mentioned by name and, more worryingly, his rule is left unanalysed.
Those that ignore their history are destined to repeat it.
Old books, that are still in use, have had Saddamist pages and his photos ripped out or blanked out.
Indeed, there is no mention of the 1991 Gulf war; and the events of 2003 are described as a "major shake-up" of Iraq.
This of course, as unpalatable as it may be, means that some fifty years of Iraqi history has been expunged.
I am afraid you cannot simply do that, without creating a very dangerous vacuum; nature abhors vacuums.
Avoiding the past in this way, and refusing to confront it, will store up trouble for the future.
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