[R-G] Dehumanising Metaphors in 'War on Terror'

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14238

Dehumanising Metaphors in 'War on Terror'

By Iqbal Jassat

In the light of fresh debates centered on Iraq, Afghanistan and  
Pakistan, particularly within the United States whose armed forces are  
deeply entrenched in the military conquest of the region under the  
guise of the ‘war on terror’, many fraudulent theories are advanced to  
justify hostilities against largely unarmed and defenseless populations.

The same can be said about the Horn of Africa and the US-sponsored war  
of aggression against Somalia.

One of the concepts used to perpetrate these military adventures is  
that of  ‘failed states’. The argument used is that the all-knowing  
West has to ‘remake the world’ in order to pave the way for democracy  
to flourish.

Millions of people have been displaced as a consequence of these  
military adventures while the American presidential candidates bicker  
over their potential moves in this game of chess, which is what the  
terrible results of the Bush administration’s war games have seemingly  
reduced these tragedies to.

This cesspool of greed by captains of multinational corporations  
alongside the insatiable hunger of the West’s military industrial  
complex is ignored or at best glossed over by their media  
institutions. This explains the phenomena of ‘embedded journalism’,  
increasingly contributing to securing public approval for illegitimate  
conduct by America and many of its allies.

Metaphorically speaking then, ‘failed states’ invite invasions and  
occupations. And those resisting such aggression in defense of their  
precious lives and properties can be eliminated through bombing  
campaigns – after all, the prevalent wisdom propagated by their spin  
doctors who have sprung up all over the world as ‘terror experts’, is  
that resistance is terrorism.

The war of metaphors has become an indispensable tool in the armoury  
of perpetrators, for it allows perverted language to conceal the human  
faces of victims.

Only the equally repugnant process of curtailing civil liberties  
matches the process of dehumanisation. Hand-in-hand these methodical  
operations have resulted in a breed of lexicons, which are used to  
hide gross human rights violations:

· Renditions;

· Guantanamo;

· Secret evidence;

· Targeted killings;

· Collateral damage;

· Precision bombings;

· Remaking the world.

As the Bush term nears its end, it remains clear that the ‘war on  
terror’ – though discredited and acknowledged as illegitimate – will  
be pursued under the watch of either Obama or McCain. Neither of them  
has given any clue that they are aware of the nightmare of Bush’s  
legacy from which people are struggling to awake.

Indeed the latest account of the devastation caused in Somalia by  
Ethiopian forces under American orders reveals the extent of mindless  
destruction characterizing the dehumanization of the so-called ‘war on  
terror’. A report by Human Rights Watch records the terrible ordeal  
suffered by Somalis as a direct result of misguided policies emanating  
from the Pentagon.

No matter how the architects of this ill-conceived warfare package  
their propaganda, it is clear that in the court of public opinion  
their efforts to strip the human dimension will not succeed.

- Iqbal Jassat is the Chairman of the Media Review Network, South  
Africa. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.