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May 25, 2005
How a Man Becomes K2
We are told that the latest offensive in Haditha, Iraq is "aimed at uprooting insurgents who have killed more than 620 people since a new Iraqi government was announced on April 28."
So, having been informed of our venerable aims by the eager AP reporter, what do you think we are doing here, in this house in Haditha:
That man in the picture is "accused of having too much ammunition for a licensed weapon." For that crime, he is blindfolded, marked, and taken away while "while his mother, seated, and sisters plead with U.S. Marines through a translator, right, for his release." (This in a country where we know it is customary for most households to have a weapon.)
That picture where that unnamed man’s furrowed forehead is marked "K2" by the marine captures the fundamental process of dehumanization that you will find if you scratch the surface of all major 20th century atrocities. That man is no longer a man for those soldiers: he is a detainee, a number, a representation of the enemy, of the people who shoot at them, the people who they hate, people who they are scared of, people that aren’t people. He can be blindfolded, marked, humiliated before his heartbroken family, taken away at will.
Once you cross that line, some of those soldiers will eventually abuse, torture and kill some of those “non-people.” This isn’t even an indictment of American culture, rather, this is the fundamental lesson of a bloody century: dehumanization is the first step towards atrocity. The particular way in which we do this may be influenced by our culture --and where else have you seen such a pornographic interest in the victims-- but we are hardly unique or immune. In fact, reading about that very disturbing account of Dilawar’s death in Bagram, Afghanistan published last week in the New York Times made me think that we seem to have arrived somewhere between Chile and Argentina during the military dictatorships in terms of systematization of the torture.
And some of those humiliated, dehumanized people will indeed drop their licensed weapons and pick up homemade explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenade launchers aimed at us. We will round up even larger numbers of the people from whom those insurgents are drawn, detain, mark, humiliate and dehumanize more of them.
The question facing us is whether we will stop before magic markers turn into tattoos.
Posted by zeynep at May 25, 2005 09:13 AM