Until the 1990s, Iraq had perhaps the best university system in the Middle East...
And what happened in August, 1990?
Anyone? Anyone?
Iraq invaded Kuwait, which lead to the destruction of most of the Iraqi Army, massive damage to the economy and infrastructure, and harsh international sanctions that Saddam magnified the effect of by diverting money intended for food and medicine to buying weapons and building many large, expensive palaces.
From your article:
Iraqi universities began their decline in the 12 years after the 1991 Gulf War. As the international sanctions regime cut off journal subscriptions and equipment purchases, academic salaries fell precipitously, and 10,000 Iraqi professors left the country. Those faculty who remained were increasingly closed off from new developments in their fields.
The terrible situation Saddam created was made even worse by the Islamists and insurgents.
Killings lead to brain drain from Iraq - 17 Apr 2006
The head of Arabic studies at Baghdad University was shot 32 times when his car was ambushed on the way to work.
Abdul Latif al-Mayah was murdered after he had appeared on al-Jazeera television. Police described the killing as "professional".
In Ramadi, the president of the university, Abdul Hadi Rajab al-Hitawi, was dragged from his home and bundled into the boot of a car. A ransom demand was received a few days later.
Both men are among the growing number of intellectuals to be targeted in Iraq, a phenomenon that is resulting in an unprecedented brain drain as those who can move abroad increasingly do so before they or their families join the list of their colleagues killed or kidnapped.
At least 182 academics have been killed since the invasion in 2003 and there have been many more kidnappings and murder attempts.
And it is not just university professors who are being targeted. In the past four months alone 331 school teachers have been murdered and nine medical workers were killed in a single day in the northern city of Mosul last month.
(Mosul? That rings a bell: Isis executioners 'kill gays by hurling them off roofs' in Mosul )
Professionals Fleeing Iraq As Violence, Threats Persist - January 23, 2006
Exodus is not new to the country. Iraqis who could flee Saddam Hussein's repressive rule did: Poor Shiite Muslims sneaked across the border into Iran, and Sunni Arabs crossed the mountains into Syria or the desert to Jordan. People often waited years for permission to attend a seminar or do business in another country and then would disappear there. Hussein began holding such people's families hostage to guarantee their return.
Many of those émigrés flooded back into Iraq when Hussein fell. But the country's instability and daily regimen of violence have made some reconsider their return. Others who stayed throughout Hussein's rule are finally saying goodbye to their homeland now.
