Efforts to aid US roil anthropology

[NYVet]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/08/efforts_to_aid_us_roil_anthropology/?page=full



WASHINGTON - A new project in which university anthropologists study tribal customs in Iraq and Afghanistan for the US military has prompted a fierce backlash among academics, some of whom accuse their colleagues of engaging in a wartime effort that violates their professional ethics.

<snip>

"Academia looks at me as being too close to the military," he said in recent interview in his crowded campus office, copies of the Nepali Manual of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency strewn about. "It has affected me negatively. I have been accused of introducing spies into academia."

At issue is a longstanding code of ethics for the discipline, one which decrees that anthropological research should never be used to inflict harm, must always have the consent of the population being studied, and must not be conducted in secret.

The debate over the role of anthropology in national security is expected to come to a head next month in an American Anthropological Association report examining the ethical questions of cooperating with the military.

<snip>
The military's own descriptions of the new teams give pause to Price and others - such as one Pentagon official who likened them to the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support project during the Vietnam War. That effort helped identify Vietnamese suspected as communists and Viet Cong collaborators; some were later assassinated by the United States.

<snip>
"I don't want to help them kill people," Selmeski said. "What I want to do is help them avoid conflict."

The US forces' superficial understanding of local tribal customs and ancient ethnic and sectarian rivalries has hampered their efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. An outstretched arm, palm facing forward, for example, means "stop" in most Western cultures, but in Iraq it's considered a sign of welcome. Confusion over the signal has had deadly consequences, leading US troops to open fire at Iraqi civilians who didn't stop at checkpoints.




NY Vet Comment- I am all for this, due to the goodwill that may be able to gained from an increased understanding of the local people.

[nightrider767]

1. I'm suspicious.

Yes it would obviously be great it the information was used to better relations with the local gentry and develop more logical approaches to our relationships with them. But let's face it, all this data is gonna be compiled, sent to washington and the resulting information will used against those same people in the form of Special Operations phsy-ops.

There will be no academic benefit from it.

The job of the military is to kill people and to take and hold land. Let's make no mistake about that. They're not in the business of making friends.

Course, hopefully I'm totally wrong.


Signed. Ex-vet too.

[TomInTib]

3. I agree.

At Coronado, we studied Vietnamese culture(s).

But it sure as hell wasn't intended to improve their quality of life.

[NYVet]

4. I would like to believe that we learned from the "We had to destroy the village to save it"

of the Vietnam era and that we are looking for ways to work with the locals instead of just "blowing up the countryside and calling it a day" that those of us in the military are accused of doing all too often.

[nightrider767]

5. Good Point

But I don't lay the blame to our troopers on the ground. They do the best they can with what's been given to them.

I'm highly suspicious of our generals who are way to eager to "cave" and follow the party line so as to not endanger their careers.

Like the torture in Abu Grave. They knew about it. It was policy....

But it's not only the generals fault. It's the administration's. They selectively pick generals who will obey and not necessarily use their judgment or principals.

"So General, we're getting a lot of negative feedback from you about our policy. Thanks for your service. Here's your next job'

"Next!"

[TomInTib]

2. I believe the anthropologists are being compromised.

They should have been consulted going in, not after we screwed up the entire Iraqi social structure.

What the anthropologists know from their studies is far different than the situation(s) on the ground.

I think the time for "goodwill" is long past.