They sent anthropologists to explain why the people they were bombing were upset about being bombed.
https://x.com/nxt888/status/2071197232464789725
They sent anthropologists.
After the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were not going as planned, the U.S. military launched the Human Terrain System, a program that embedded social scientists with combat brigades to help soldiers understand local culture, tribal dynamics, religious practices, and community structures.
The idea was:
If we understand them better, we can manage them better.
Notice what is missing from that sentence.
Not: if we understand them better, we might reconsider what we are doing to them.
Not: if we understand them better, we might recognize that their resistance is a rational response to our presence.
Just:
Understand them better to manage them better.
To make the occupation more efficient.
To reduce friction.
To make the subjugation smoother.
They sent anthropologists to explain why the people they were bombing were upset about being bombed.
And then were puzzled when the bombing continued to produce upset people.
The program was eventually shut down following criticism that it violated research ethics, after several embedded researchers were killed.
The researchers were killed by the people they were sent to understand.
The people were upset because they were being bombed.
The circle is complete.
posted by Satish Sharma at
10:20
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