Cheated of Future, Iraqi Graduates Want to Flee

They said would leave their country feeling betrayed, by the debilitating violence that has killed scores of professors and friends, by the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism and by the Americans, who they say cracked open their country, releasing spasms of violence without protecting the moderate institutions that could have been a bulwark against extremism.

“I want to tell them thanks for liberating us, but enough with the mistakes,” said Abdul Hassein Ibrahim Zain Alabidin, a Shiite Turkmen studying law at Kirkuk University, in the north. The errors, he said, “led to division and terrorism.”

Iraq’s roughly 56,000 graduates began their college careers under far different circumstances. With the world’s strongest power expected to democratize and modernize their country, they said, they felt special, chosen, about to be famous on the worldwide stage.

“I thought we would be like stars,” said Ahmed Saleh Abdul Khader, 21, a biology student in the southern city of Basra.
I have no comments other than I feel bad for these people. In order for Iraq to succeed, the professionals need to stay. But can you really blame them for leaving?