Yoko Ono will be on Democracy Now! today. Among other topics discussed will be the Imagine Peace Tower. Meanwhile NPR's Morning Edition today proves just how filtered and timid NPR has become with "Troop Memoirs Offer Unfiltered View of Iraq War" which, despite four memoirs of war resisters published thus far this year, can't include a one of them. Remember that when they beg next for your money. Wednesday, NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, with guest host Susan Page, looked at the ways some anthropologists are betraying their field (dressing in military uniforms and carrying weapons would be a betrayal for any who missed the broadcast). Polly notes that the BBC has finally discovered the story somewhat and steers us to Kambiz Fattahi's "US army enlists anthropologists:"
Winning the trust of the indigenous populations "is at the heart of the struggle between coalition forces and the insurgents", BAe's job advertisement for field anthropologists emphasises.
But it has not convinced many anthropologists in the US.
Last year, their largest professional organisation, the American Anthropological Association (AAA), called for an end to the Iraq war.
Since then, AAA has set up a national commission to review the involvement of anthropologists in national security work.
Many anthropologists in the US consider it unethical to work with the HTS teams. They are worried about the potential risks to the human subjects of their studies.
"I feel the need to protect the safety, well-being and interests of those who shared with me their knowledge and histories. My ultimate responsibility is to protect them," says a social anthropologist specialising in the Middle East.
A vocal critic, Roberto Gonzalez, professor of anthropology at San Jose State University, accuses the Pentagon of trying to, as he puts it, "weaponise" anthropology.
He believes that HTS units are likely to operate "as full-blown counterinsurgency teams akin to what the British employed in the colonies over a half-century ago".
Concerned Anthropologists is the group trying to raise awareness.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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