Demonization As A War Tactic
Michael Prysner talking at Winter Soldier
When I first joined the army we were told that racism no longer existed in the military. A legacy of inequality and discrimination was suddenly washed away by something called the “Equal Opportunity Program”, we would sit through mandatory classes and every unit has this EO representative to ensure that no elements of racism could resurface and the army seemed firmly dedicated to smashing any hint of racism.
And then September 11th happened and I began to hear new words like “towel head” and “camel jockey” and the most disturbing “sand nigger”, and these words did not initially come from my fellow soldiers but from my superiors, my Platoon Sargent, my company First Sargent, Battalion Commander, all the way up the chain of command, these terms, these viciously racist terms were suddenly acceptable.
I noticed that the most overt racism came from veterans of The First Gulf War, and those were the words they used when they were incinerating civilian convoys, those are the words they used when this government deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure, bombing water supplies knowing that it would kill hundreds of thousands of children. Those are the words the American people used when they allowed this government to sanction Iraq, and this is something that many people forget, and that we can’t forget.
Show of hands…. how many people are really surprised to hear such statements?
Racism within the military has long been an important tool to justify the destruction and occupation of another country. It has long been used to justify the killing and subgegation and torture of another people.
Racism is a vital weapon employed by this government. It is a more important weapon than a rifle, a tank, a bomber, or a battle ship. It is more destructive than an artillery shell, or a bunker buster, or a Tomahawk missile. While those weapons are created and owned by this government they are harmless without people to use them.
[.....]
…. convincing us to kill and die is based on their ability to make us think that we are somehow superior.
– and that tactic continues to this today.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Stuck On Stupid, The Pink Flamingo, third world county, Right Voices, The World According to Carl, Miss Beth’s Victory Dance, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Not just the US military either. Back in the 80’s, while I was at university and my brother was going through Basic at Cornwallis, he would phone me regularly and tell me about his latest training
“The towel heads are rioting” and heres what we do, before we get to fix bayonets.
“A towel head” has made a bomb and placed it in an embassy. Here’s what we have to do before we can shoot him.
and so on.
Back then, of course, the “towel heads” in question were Sikhs, not Arabs or other Muslims. But the racism was and is the same.
“I’ll shoot a towel head for you!” my brother would say, thinking he had somehow paid me a compliment.
So this is no surpirse, as was the conduct of the Airborne in Somalia, only a few years after my brother went through this kind of training.
Luckily, I was able to verbally slap some sense into my bro, who before he went was a farm boy with not a racist bone in his body. Now that he is a WO, he doesn’t put up with that kind of shit, but he is, according to what he tells me, still in the minority.
Its the dirtly little secret of all militaries that they use racism as one of the means to create killers (which is, when you get right down to it, what soldiers do) who will perform on command. In the end they end up creating worse.
Face it, you’re talking about “demonizing” a hate cult via slurs against a people group as though that were in soe way, shape, fashion or form “racism.”
Racism? No, not quite. (referring to Islamics, sure, “towel head” and other such remarks are derogatory, but although Arabs–an ethnicity, not a race–are by and large the first image that comes to mind when thinking of Muslims, they do not comprise the whole of Islam, which has subdued many of different races). Demonization? How can one demnize a religious cult whose own holy writings advocate–by a three to one margin at least, as compared with “peaceful” admonitions–violence against any group or persons not believing as they do? How? It sems that Islam demonizes its own followers by its own precepts.
Consider but one of many clear examples: the Islamic new year begins with a celebration of Mohammed’s “victory” over the Jews of what is now Medina, a “victoty” won by violating a flag of truce and Mohammed’s order to butcher over 900 Jewish men, loots and pillage their goods, rape and enslave their women.
ALL Muslims celebrate this “great victory” won through deciet, resulting in the butchery, rape, pillage and enslavement of Mohammed’s opponents. How can anyone demonize such a cult? It does that job itself.
No, don’t respond with the chimera of “moderate Muslims.” Such creatures do not exist. There are only
1. Honest and open followers of Mohammed’s teachings and life example (terrorists)
2. Practitioners of al-taqiyah, so-called “holy deception” of the kafir.
3. Subjugated people who have no choice: be “Muslim” or experience persecution even to the point of torture, mutilation and death.
4. The self-decieved who discount the 75% (or more) of their own holy writings that advocate abuse of women, slavery, theft from and killing of kafirs, etc.
(Heck, in the Hadith–a third of the “holy trilogy” of Islam–”jihad” is about 97% violence and only about 3% the “jihad of inner struggle” that soi dissant “moderate Muslims” claim it to be. *sheesh!* Liars.)
There are no “moderate Muslims.” #s 2-4 above are the only classes that are percieved by the self-decieved as being such a thing.
Demonization of Islam and Muslims? Muslims do that easily enough on their own. Just publish your own cartoon mocking Mohammed to test that fact.
“convincing us to kill and die is based on their ability to make us think that we are somehow superior.”
Shouldn’t be a hard task. A simple examination of the well-established facts of history ought to be enough. Is Western Civilization superior to Islamic culture? The answer is an unequivocal “Yes!”
Isn’t it funny how many of our neocon friends have memorized exactly the same pop litany of carefully framed factoids to justify their hatemongering - all phrased to sound as though they actually had a clue, instead of just access to the same network of shitheads?
David…at least check your spelling when you drool over here, would you?
Not at all David, I am talking about demonizing a people and a culture so that when “our people” and “our culture” commit atrocities and illegal acts it’s either:
(a) acceptable,
(b) more acceptable, or
(c) completely alright
– because in the eyes of “our people” and “our culture” they are, as an entire people, and an entire culture, less than us.
As I’m sure you’re aware David it’s a very old tactic. The English & the French employed it when they came to North America, the Spanish employed it in South America, it was what was used by the ‘gentle Christian folks’ who kept slaves, priests and nuns who abused Aboriginal kids, dictators who wanted to create “the master race”, every military machine that has ever gone to war against another, and now there’s you.
You’re a true believer, and because of that you’re in pretty …. ah ….. interesting historical company. You’ve learned the tactic quite well, but none of the lessons; an unfortunate thing really, because when people don’t learn the lessons the nastiest parts of our history come back to haunt us again and again and again.
Ah, but your quoted material (from the widely discredited “Winter Soldier” site–Michael Moore for heaven’s sake?) specifically cites “racism” which, of course, is a term that can only be applied by completely redefining the term to mean something it does not.
Western Civilization’s “nastiest parts of history” are not even a patch on the murderous continuity of oppression, slavery and hatemongering of Islam, a record that is unchanged from Mohammed’s first “great victory” of mass murder, rape, looting and enslavement of the Jewish community at Medina. At the very least, Western Civilization has grown to view such things as abhorent; Islamic society simply views such things committed against the kafir as following The Butcher of Medina.
Facts. For “factoids” you can’t even look to “balbulican” who had no argument, no facts, no nothing at all to offer but simply namecalling and–the lowest of arguments in discourse–shock! spelling!
Oh, my! What horrors!
What a loon.
And I stand by my assertion: it is Islam that demonizes itself. It is a hate-based cult, and anyone who actually reads Islam’s own foundational documents–which ALL Muslims claim are the word of Allah, the guiding light of their faith and practice, can plainly see that the vast weight of proclamations are of hate, violence, excuses for mistreatment of anyone not Muslim. “balbulican”–READ the Koran, the Hadith and the Sira (you can read, can’t you?). That you have not is obvious by your comment. When you have, then make a fact-based argument, if you can.
*crickets chirping*
Right “balbulican”. Not going to bother to actually read the documents upon which Islam functions, are you? Until you do, anything you have to say on the matter is worth less than a zero with the rim kicked off.
Actually no (again) David, my quoted material comes from the statement of an Iraq veteran named Michael Prysner. The link in the post goes to the Wired Blog Network. Unless Prysner is Michael Moore in disguise or Moore owns the Wired Blog network it would appear that your somewhat confused.
As far as the word “racism” goes would you be happier if I did this
racismbigotryYour argument hangs on
(a) playing with words (although international definitions of racism do include “race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin“), and
(b) hate
Again, these attributes put you in ….. ah ….. well known historic company.
“you can’t even look to “balbulican” who had no argument, no facts, no nothing at all to offer but simply namecalling and–the lowest of arguments in discourse–shock! spelling!”
David, I don’t argue any more with folks who thinks Elvis exist, or who reproduce, note for note, the same chorus of uninformed anti-Muslim pseudo erudition, consisting, without fail, of the same ingnorant misquotations. You bore me. You’re a stupid shit who has read the same handful of hate websites and culled the same crap as every other idiot of your ilk. You’ve neither the wit nor the mind to be worth engaging. Sorry.
Irony of ironies, here is David, exhibiting the same bald slobbering hate he claims is representative of ALL Muslims. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Oh David this:
“It is a hate-based cult, and anyone who actually reads Islam’s own foundational documents–which ALL Muslims claim are the word of Allah, the guiding light of their faith and practice, can plainly see that the vast weight of proclamations are of hate, violence, excuses for mistreatment of anyone not Muslim.”
could easily be changed to
“It is a hate-based cult, and anyone who actually reads Christianity’s own foundational documents–which ALL Christians claim are the word of God, the guiding light of their faith and practice, can plainly see that the vast weight of proclamations are of hate, violence, excuses for mistreatment of anyone not Christian.”
It would be just as true.
Clearly you are a sad, angry hate-filled man who has decided it is the Muslims who are the cause of all the worlds problems. If only they were gone, the world would be a better place, right? Why does that sound familiar?
I really pity you. I also think you are a fool and an example of the kind of dangerous demagogue that must be fought at every turn.
Just so you know where you stand.
Show of hands…. how many people are really surprised to hear such statements?
Not me.
I was in the military for 12 years. You demonize your enemy makes ‘em easier to kill. It’s not just race. I joined at the height of the cold war. I was trained to kill “Ivan” the pinko commie bastard who was a 10 foot tall killing machine who was out to destroy everything I held dear. The fact that the dude who might have been in my fire zone probably wasn’t named Ivan, but was some scared shitless conscript from Belarus who wanted to be a veteranarian when his hitch was up, might have made me hesitate blowing his head off. So it’s not just race that is used to de-hemanize, ideology is used too. It’s harsh, but it’s a necissary evil. You need your soldiers to be able to kill the enemy on command. Feel remorse and regret on your own time.
Soldiers also talk to each other like that. You call each other the most vile names you can think of to take the piss out of each other. It’s actually a form of bonding. You call each other the worse names you can think of just to show that those things don’t matter. Not to say I didn’t see it lead to the odd punch up, but in the end you’re still buddies.
Nastyboy - well put.
Mike - what gets me is the unremitting sameness of the litany of ignorance parroted by the Davids of the world, and the way the same stupid ideas whip round the moronosphere, each trailing an air of faux-erudition. I first read his hilarious misinterpretation of Eid over at the “Centre for Vigilant Freedom”, and tried to post a rebuttal, which, of course, they censored. By and large I don’t bother with this particular flavour of idiot anymore.
what gets me is the unremitting sameness of the litany of ignorance parroted by the Davids of the world
When I first started paying attention to the blog world, I was over at The Shotgun and I did not understand why people were using the word “multiculturalist” as if it were an insult. I challenged Kathy Shaidle about her position. I also pointed out that if the Shotgun Bloggers had their way with Canadian culture, there wouldn’t be Indians, Immigrants, African-Canadians, Gays, Arabs, or French people. I said when you add up all the people that the So-Con/Can-Con world deems undesirables, and list them, you get the essence of their argument. That to them, Canadian society is Mostly ALL Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking Christians and THAT is it.
Anyways, Kathy Shaidle in response to my request linked to an article about moral relativism and cultural superiority that almost completely was along the same lines as David’s claptrap.
When I tried to politely point out that there were some heavy duty flaws in the logic of the article Shaidle had linked to, Kate McMillan started to erase my comments and re-write them to make it look like I was conceeding the discussion to Kathy and her.
These people are totally and utterly blinded to their own hatreds and logical fallacies and they will brook no dissent from anybody who even politely will try to challenge them.
Notice that David (while staying polite) simply re-jigs his dogma in different words to try and put forward the same points that have just been refuted.
Repitition, no matter how cleverly done is NOT refutation.
Anyways, I was just amazed at the time that not only was this attitude about muslims and multi-culturalism held by people who were literate, but that there was such vehement fury should anybody contradict it in any fashion.
I really did wonder just what the hell had happened to conservatives in Canada.
It’s only after several years and seeing how easily marginalized these people are that I’ve calmed down about this. People like David hang out with hatemongers like Shaidle or McMillan and such - and they forget that they are in real life very much alone with their odd little perspectives on the world.
A case in point might be the free-speechers crusade and the Union of Bloggers business. The petition to abolish the HRC has been up for almost 4 months and they’ve managed to cull 3000+ signatures, some of which are “anon” and from the UK or United States. That’s less than 0.01 percent of the Canadian population.
And yet to read Ezra or Kate or Kathy or the free-speech fanatics, you would think that THEY really do represent the average Canadian. And there’s a contradiction in that too. They simultaneously try to claim to be representing “the white minority” as underdogs, while simultaneously bragging about how they are more read than Mainstream Media outlets. It’s a contradiction. You can’t be a lowly blogger fighting the good fight, and at the same time claim to represent the mainstream of thought in this country. Sooner or later one of these claims cancels out the other.
Not to excuse the “racist” remarks used in the military (others have covered the neccesity of the reasons), I’ll just again point out that the tactic is not a new one. In WWII, the Germans were “Krauts”. The Japanese were Japs or Nips. They were “babykillers”. We put Japanese (even those that were American citizens) and German nationals in what were essentially concentration camps for the duration of the war. Admittedly, we didn’t give them “gas showers” as the Germans did, but, still, we imprisoned them. Of course, Hitler was busy demonizing everyone who wasn’t Aryan. It worked, too.
When you get a group of people who believe that videotaping a beheading of someone, walking into a marketplace full of innocent women and children, or kidnapping and shooting someone in the back of the head is just because the other group does not believe the same as they do is right, then I for one have to challenge the humanity of people like that.
I was sent to Mogadishu in 1993 under the mission of Operation Restore Hope and the people that I saw there, while they were trying to kill me, were not evil like the animals in Iraq are. For the most part, they wanted to make sure that their families were fed and well taken care of.
The terrorists that are in Iraq are not fighting for their families when they walk into a marketplace and blow themselves up, they are trying to force the population to accept a radical view of Islam that glorifies violence and denigrates anyone not male and accepting of their viewpoint concerning the Muslim faith.
David, how do you sleep at night knowing all those ‘non moderate’ Muslims are out there plotting against you? Fortunately, our North American ancestors never did anything as racist as those plotting against us have, so we’re morally superior, and thus are destined by the law of fairy tales to emerge victorious. That’s the crux of your argument, correct?
“…then I for one have to challenge the humanity of people like that.”
I understand why rage and horror would make you feel that way, but you’d be wrong. It’s comforting to create a category called “monster” and dump some of the behaviours that appal us into a category other than human. Unfortunately, what’s really required is a reappraisal of what humans are capable of. (I’ve never understood why some people feel this somehow diminishes the culpability of concentration camp guards or CIA torturere or Islamist suicide bombers, by the way - they all remain totally responsible for their behaviours.)
Bal,
why do I have to reappraise what human beings are capable of? Evil is evil and I have been around long enough to know that evil MUST be stopped by men and women who have the courage of their convictions and the spine to stop that evil.
As for your side comment about CIA torturers… What we have seen of the interrogation methods from release of duments under the FIOI act and media outlets, I was treated in a worse manner in basic training when I joined the Army and then again when I pleged a fraternity in college.
correcion of spelling
duments should be documents
“why do I have to reappraise what human beings are capable of?”
Maybe I wasn’t clear. When we pretend that extermination camp guards or suicide bombers aren’t human, we’re flattering ourselves.
‘What we have seen of the interrogation methods from release of duments under the FIOI act and media outlets, I was treated in a worse manner in basic training when I joined the Army and then again when I pleged a fraternity in college.”
Gosh. Sorry to hear that you were beaten to death. You write really well for a corpse.
I was treated in a worse manner in basic training when I joined the Army and then again when I pleged a fraternity in college.
Being forced to drop a bing cherry into a beer mug with your ass cheeks, while having a Pledge Master shouting “Faggot!!!!” 1 inch from your ear, should be against the Geneva Conventions.
Especially when they make you chug the beer and eat the cherry before having to do it all over again until you get right.