I once posted some stuff in a signal group about China's school building efforts in Africa and the Middle East and a lib friend piped up saying "Colonialism is colonialism, whether it is done with schools, or with bombs". Good lord that annoyed me.

Iraqis need, like any other people, basic infrastructure like to make their society work. Propaganda or not, a school is a school. Children and adults getting educated and having chances of getting better jobs, instead of falling into traps like the so called Islamic State that brought only death, rape and suffering.

Now if the Iraqis themselves want to argue if they prefer watching their schoolchildren singing in English or Mandarin, that should ultimately be the Iraqis decision, not ours.