"All they understand is force": Debating culture in Operation Iraqi Freedom

American Anthropologist

Volumn 110, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 443-453

  Brown, Keith ^a  

^a BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Acultural; Culture; Operation Iraqi Freedom; U.S. military; Weaponization

Indexed keywords

EID: 53849109282     PISSN: 00027294     EISSN: 15481433     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2008.00077.x     Document Type: Article

References (120)

1. Alaimo, Carol Ann 2006 Huachuca Turns out Sensitive Soldiers: GIs Are Taught How to Avoid Offending Iraqi Population. Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), April 30: 1. Electronic document, http://www.fox11az.com/news/ other/stories/043006cckrFox11huachuca.887112be.html, accessed June 25, 2008.
2. Atiyeh, George N., ed. 1977 Arab and American Cultures. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
3. Avruch, Kevin 2004 Culture as Context, Culture as Communication: Considerations for Humanitarian Negotiators. Harvard Negotiation Law Review 9:391-407.
4. Baumann, Robert F., George Gawrych, and Walter Kretchik 2004 Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press.
5. Ben-Ari, Eyal 2004 Review Essay: The Military and Militarism in the United States. American Ethnologist 31(3):340-348.
6. Bender, Bryan 2006 Condolence Payments to Iraqis Soar. Boston Globe, June 8: A1.
7. Boas, Franz 1919 Scientists as Spies. The Nation 109(2842):797.
8. Bolger, Daniel 1995 Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990s. Novato: Presidio.
9. Bourke, Joanna 1999 An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare. New York: Basic Books.
10. Brown, Keith 2000 Balkan Commentary, Part 2. Anthropology News 41(5):71-72.
11. Brown, Keith, and Catherine Lutz 2007 Grunt Lit: The Participant-Observers of Empire. American Ethnologist 34(2):322-328.
12. Burke, Carol 2004 Camp All-American, Hanoi Jane, and the High-and-Tight: Gender, Folklore, and Changing Military Culture. Boston: Beacon.
13. Buzzell, Colby 2005 My War: Killing Time in Iraq. New York: G. P. Putnam's. Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL)
14. Buzzell, Colby 2004 Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) CAAT II Initial Impressions Report 04-13. Fort Leavenworth, TX: Center for Army Lessons Learned.
15. Chandrasekaran, Rajiv 2004 Gamble Brings Old Uniforms Back into Style. Washington Post, May 7: A1.
16. Chen, G. M., and W. J. Starosta 2005 Foundations of Intercultural Communication. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
17. Clover, Charles 2003 Clash of Cultures Fuels Low-Level War of Increasing Animosity. Financial Times, June 2: 10. [London]
18. Cunningham, Robert B., and Yasin Sarayrah 1993 Wasta: The Hidden Force in Middle Eastern Society. Westport, CT: Praeger.
19. Danner, Mark 2004 Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. New York: New York Review of Books.
20. Da Cruz, Daniel 1987 Boot. New York: St. Martin's.
21. Donnelly, Tom 1985 Special Operations Still a Military Stepchild. Army Times, July 1: 41-43.
22. Dunlap, Charles J. 2008 We Still Need the Big Guns. New York Times, January 9: 19.
23. Enders, David 2005 Baghdad Bulletin: Dispatches on the American Occupation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
24. English, Bella 1991 Desert Etiquette for the Troops. Boston Globe, February 6: 17.
25. Filkins, Dexter 2003 Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns. New York Times, December 7: A1.
26. Filkins, Dexter, and John Burns 2006 Mock Iraqi Villages in Mojave Prepare Troops for Battle. New York Times, May 1: A1.
27. Flint, Edward 2001 Civil Affairs: Soldiers Building Bridges. In Aspects of Peacekeeping. D. S. Gordon and F. H. Toase, eds. Pp. 231-252. London: Frank Cass.
28. Ford, Christopher M. 2004 The Practices of Law at the Brigade Combat Team (BCT): Boneyards, Hitting for the Cycle, and All Aspects of a Fill Spectrum Practice. Army Lawyer (December):22-38.
29. Gill, Lesley 2004 The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
30. Gonzalez, John W. 2006 Old Approach Has a New Realism: Army Reservists at Fort Hood Are Being Immersed in Scenarios that Mirror Iraq. Houston Chronicle, April 8: B3.
31. Gonzalez, Robert 2007 Towards Mercenary Anthropology? Anthropology Today 23(3):14-19.
32. Gordon, Michael, and Bernard Trainor 2006 Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. New York: Pantheon Books.
33. Gough, Kathleen 1968 New Proposals for Anthropologists. Current Anthropology 9:403-407.
34. Gusterson, Hugh 2007 Anthropology and Militarism. Annual Review of Anthropology 36:155-175.
35. Gutmann, Stephanie 2000 The Kinder, Gentler Military: Can America's Gender-Neutral Fighting Force Still Win Wars? New York: Scribners.
36. Halliday, Fred 2005 100 Myths about the Middle East. Berkeley: University of California Press.
37. Harper's Magazine 2004 Semper Sensitive: Etiquette. Harper's Magazine 1849(308): 25.
38. Hastings, Michael 2008 I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story. New York: Scribner.
39. Hendawi, Hamza 2003 U.S. Soldiers Involved in Iraqi Policemen Deaths "Just Arrived in City." Irish Examiner, September 19. Electronic document, http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2003/09/19/ story158371519.asp, accessed June 25, 2008.
40. Hersh, Seymour 2004 Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. New York: HarperCollins.
41. Hofstede, Geert 1997 Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw and Hill.
42. Horne, John, and Alan Kramer 2001 German War Atrocities: A History of Denial. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
43. Huntington, Samuel 1957 The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil- Military Relations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44. Jacobs, Andrew 2004 Mock Village Helps Troops Learn Skills for Iraq Duty. New York Times, February 22: A10.
45. Jaschik, Scott 2006 If CIA Calls, Should Anthropology Answer? September 1. Electronic document, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/ anthro, accessed June 25, 2008.
46. Jonsson, Patrik 2002 Say It in Pashto: U.S. Troops Learn New Tongues. Christian Science Monitor, February 5: 16.
47. Jorgensen, Joseph G., and Eric R. Wolf 1970 A Special Supplement: Anthropology on the Warpath in Thailand. New York Review of Books 15(9):26-35.
48. Joseph, Jeremy 2007 Mediation in War: Winning Hearts and Minds Using Mediated Condolence Payments. Negotiation Journal 23(3):219-248.
49. Kaplan, Robert 2005 Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond. New York: Vintage Books.
50. Kennedy, David 2004 The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
51. King, Alan 2006 Twice-Armed: An American Soldier's Battle for Hearts and Minds in Iraq. St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press.
52. Kipnis, Andrew 1997 Producing Guanxi: Sentiment, Self, and Subculture in a North China Village. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
53. Komarow, Steven 2004 U.S. Forces Train in Arab Culture. USA Today, February 17: 10A.
54. Krepinevich, Andrew 1988 The Army and Vietnam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
55. Krulak, Charles 1999 The Strategic Corporal: Leadership in the Three Block War. Marines Magazine, January. Electronic document, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/strategic_corporal.htm, accessed June 25, 2008.
56. Lagouranis, Tony 2007 Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq. New York: New American Library.
57. Little, Douglas 2002 American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
58. Lonkila, M. 1997 Informal Exchange Relations in Post-Soviet Russia: A Comparative Perspective. Sociological Research Online 2(2). Electronic document, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/2/2/9.htm, accessed June 25, 2008.
59. Lutz, Catherine 2001 Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century. Boston: Beacon.
60. Lutz, Catherine 2002 Making War at Home in the United States: Militarization and the Current Crisis. American Anthropologist 104(3):723-735.
61. Mackey, Chris, and Greg Miller 2004 The Interrogators: Inside the Secret War against al Qaeda. Boston: Little, Brown.
62. Masterton, R. Peter 2005 Managing a Claims Office. Army Lawyer (September):29-53.
63. Mazzetti, Mark 2004 Good Marines Make Good Neighbors: Why a Vietnam War Counterinsurgency Program Is Being Tried Again In Iraq. Slate, February 25. Electronic document, http://www.slate.com/id/2096027/, accessed October 4, 2008.
64. McCarthy, Rory 2003 No Regrets or Culprits, Just Cash for Series of Random Killings. Guardian, November 26: 4.
65. McCoy, Alfred 2006 A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror. New York: Metropolitan.
66. McFate, Montgomery 2005 Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of Their Curious Relationship. Military Review, March-April:24-38.
67. Middleton, Drew 1982 Vietnam and the Military Mind. New York Times, January 10: Section 6, p. 34.
68. Mueller, Chuck 2006 Sculpting New War Discipline. San Bernardino Sun, April 10: News.
69. Nader, Laura 1972 Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained from Studying Up. In Reinventing Anthropology. Dell Hymes, ed. Pp. 284-311. New York: Pantheon.
70. Nagl, John 2005 Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
71. Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jack 2001 School of Assassins: Guns, Greed, and Globalization. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.
72. Network of Concerned Anthropologists (NCA) 2007 Pledge of Non-Participation in Counter-Insurgency. Electronic document, http://concerned.anthropologists.googlepages.com/, accessed February 21, 2008.
73. Nordstrom, Carolyn 1997 A Different Kind of War Story. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
74. Nuti, Paul 2006 Smart Card: Don't Leave Military Base without It. Anthropology News 47(7):15-16.
75. Olds, Ian, and Garrett Scott, dirs. 2005 Occupation: Dreamland. 78min. New York: Working Film-Greenhouse Pictures.
76. Oliver, Kelly 2007 Women as Weapons of War: Iraq, Sex, and the Media. New York: Columbia University Press.
77. Otterman, Michael 2007 American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond. London: Pluto.
78. Patai, Raphael 1973 The Arab Mind. New York: Scribner.
79. Peacock, James, Robert Albro, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Kerry Fosher, Laura McNamara, Monica Heller, George Marcus, David Price, and Alan Goodman 2007 AAA Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the U.S. Security and Intelligence Communities, Final Report. Electronic document, http://www.aaanet.org/pdf/Final_Report.pdf, accessed March 28, 2008.
80. Peterson, Michael E. 1989 The Combined Action Platoons: The U.S. Marines' Other War in Vietnam. Westport, CT: Praeger.
81. Petraeus, David 2006 Transforming Military Training: Using the Lessons of the Past to Build the Army of the Future. Paper presented at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, September 14.
82. Petraeus, David, and James F. Amos 2006 Foreword. In Counterinsurgency. U.S. Army Field Manual 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication 3-33.5. Electronic document, http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf, accessed June 25, 2008.
83. Price, David 2002 Interlopers and Invited Guests: On Anthropology's Witting and Unwitting Links to Intelligence Agencies. Anthropology Today 18(6):16-21.
84. Priest, Dana 2003 The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military. New York: W. W. Norton.
85. Ricks, Thomas 2006 Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. New York: Penguin.
86. Ron, James 2000 Savage Restraint: Israel, Palestine, and the Dialectics of Legal Repression. Social Problems 47(4):445-472.
87. Rubinstein, Robert 2003 Peacekeepers and Politics: Experience and Political Representation among U.S. Military Officers. In Anthropology and the United States Military: Coming of Age in the Twenty-First Century. Pamela R. Freese and Margaret C. Harrell, eds. Pp. 15-27. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
88. Saar, Erik 2005 Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantanamo. New York: Penguin Books.
89. Sahlins, Marshall 1976 Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
90. Said, Edward 1978 Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
91. Sappenfield, Mark 2006 What U.S. Wants in Its Troops: Cultural Savvy. Christian Science Monitor, July 5: 1.
92. Saunders, Doug 2004 U.S. Soldiers Taught Manners, Arabic Phrases. Globe and Mail, March 24: A24.
93. Scales, Robert H. 2005 Human Intel vs. Technology: Cultural Knowledge Important in Iraq. Washington Times, February 3: A21.
94. Schmidt, Eric 2006 Word for Word: A Man Does Not Ask aMan about His Wife. New York Times, January 8: Section 4, p. 7.
95. Schultheis, Rob 2005 Waging Peace: A Special Operations Team's Battle to Rebuild Iraq. New York: Gotham.
96. Scott Tyson, Ann 2006 In a Volatile Region of Iraq, U.S. Military Takes Two Paths. Washington Post, September 15: A01.
97. Shacochis, Bob 1999 The Immaculate Invasion. New York: Penguin.
98. Shadid, Anthony 2003 In Searching Homes, U.S. Troops Crossed the Threshold of Unrest. Washington Post, May 30: A01.
99. Shadid, Anthony 2004 For Rebuilders of Sadr City, Gratitude Tainted by Mistrust. Washington Post, December 17: A01.
100. Sherman, Nancy 2005 Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy behind the Military Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
101. Simons, Anna 1997 The Company They Keep: Life Inside the U.S. Army Special Forces. New York: Free Press.
102. Smithers, Jason 2006 Definitely Not California. In What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It. Trish Wood, ed. Pp. 154-159. New York: Little, Brown.
103. Spangler, Anthony 2003 Mock Village Helps Soldiers Move from Combat to Peacekeeping Role. Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, December 16. Electronic document, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/ summary_0286-8031749_ITM, accessed June 28, 2008.
104. Squires, Chase 2006 New War Demands New Training for Troops. Associated Press Online. Domestic News, June 25. Electronic document, http://www.kxmb.com/t/mayville-nd/17952.asp, accessed October 4, 2008.
105. Stewart, Andrew J. 2006 Friction in U.S. Foreign Policy: Cultural Difficulties with the World. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, Army War College.
106. Taylor, J. S. 2003 The Story Catches You and You Fall Down: Tragedy, Ethnography, and "Cultural Competence." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17:159-181.
107. Thomas, Evan 1986 A Warrior Elite for the Dirty Jobs. Time Magazine, January 13: 16-21.
108. Tucker, Mike 2005 Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, SpecialOps, and Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah. Guilford, CT: Lyon.
109. Turregano, Clemson, and Keith Brown 2006 Trust, Bricks and Mortar: KFOR and the Rebuilding of the Pones Schoolhouse. In Transacting Transition: The Micropolitics of Democracy Assistance in the Former Yugoslavia. Keith Brown, ed. Pp. 142-165. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
110. U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) 2006 Arab Cultural Awareness: 58 Factsheets. TRADOC DCSINT Handbook No. 2 (January). Electronic document, http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/arabculture.pdf, accessed June 25, 2008.
111. U.S. General Accounting Office (USGAO) 2007 Military Operations: The Department of Defense's Use of Solatia and Condolence Payments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Report GAO-07-699, released May 31, 2007. Electronic document, http://www.gao.gov/htext/d07699.html, accessed July 2007.
112. U.S. House of Representatives 2004 Iraq: Winning Hearts and Minds. Hearings of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations of the Committee on Government Reform. 108th Cong., 2nd session, June 15 2004: Serial No. 108-233. Electronic document, http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS58370, accessed June 25, 2008.
113. Wakin, Eric 1992 Anthropology Goes to War: Professional Ethics and Counterinsurgency in Thailand. Monograph No. 7. Madison, WI: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin.
114. Weeks, Linton 2003 Worst Foot Forward: A Guide to Foreign Insults. Washington Post, April 11: C01.
115. Westmoreland, William C. 1976 A Soldier Reports. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
116. Wirth, Louis 1938 Urbanism as a Way of Life. American Journal of Sociology 44:1-24.
117. Woodward, Robert 1991 The Commanders. New York: Simon and Schuster.
118. Wunderle, William D. 2006 Through the Lens of Cultural Awareness: A Primer for U.S. Armed Forces Deploying to Arab and Middle Eastern Countries. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press.
119. Yee, James 2005 For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism under Fire. New York: Public Affairs Press.
120. Zinni, Anthony 1994 Non-Traditional Military Missions: Their Nature, and the Need for Cultural Awareness and Flexible Thinking. In Capital "W" War: A Case for Strategic Principles of War. Marine Corps University Perspectives on Warfighting, 6. Joe Strange, ed. Pp. 247-283. Quantico, VA: Marine Corps University.