After the Abu Ghraib door has bolted
British soldiers have been issued with “cultural appreciation” manuals explaining how the war on terror and Western imperialism have alienated the Arab world and how they can avoid making matters worse. In a candid assessment of the grievances motivating the forces facing British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Ministry of Defence highlights Guantanamo Bay and the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Where the hell have these ‘manuals’ been for the last seven years? Did the printers let the MoD down or something? Maybe they got lost in the post along with the instructions for telling the difference between right and wrong.
You can’t help but think that this comes a bit late in the day. Surely when you’re planning to liberate a country, a little cultural awareness would be handy before you actually begin the liberation. It seems a little strange now to have to go about the place explaining to Arabs that if only we’d known that they didn’t like being beaten for no apparent reason or imprisoned without trial, we could have all saved ourselves a lot of bother. Still, cultural misunderstandings, eh? What can you do?
Still, I doubt whoever wrote the manuals had to do a lot of work. This passage sounds like it was cannabalised from the Abu Ghraib Big Book of Rotten Apples, turning a threat into an opportunity, as it were:
They also emphasise how Arabs value the notion of shame. “The socio-psychological need to avoid a loss of face… and a consequent diminution in social status in the eyes of society, to a large extent underpins social behaviour and interaction between Arabs, at least in public.”
To tell the truth, it’s as much the Arabs’ fault as ours. They should have told us they don’t like being threatened with dogs and sexually humiliated. Come on, guys, throw us a bone.
(Via Philip.)
Update: You can read the MoD’s manuals for yourself here. Thanks to Richard in the comments.
Posted on February 11th, 2008 at 4:46pm under Afghanistan, Iraq, T.W.A.T.
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• 5 Comments |
When they produce a similar guide for persians or kurds rather than arabs then we’ll be laughing
A very good point.
Brilliantly put as ever Justin.
More Abu Ghraib and torture pictures here.
Is it really that difficult for allegedly sentient beings (politicians, MoD, soldiers) to understand right from wrong?
Oh, I forgot. You can’t really call Blair, Brown, Straw, Milliprick, and Des(sperate) Browne sentient can you. Or human(e).
Corrupt, sycophantic, amoral, hell-bound devil’s bum-grapes, maybe.
They felt nowt but the thirty pieces of silver crossing their palms as Satan watched them fuck UK interests and innocent Iraqi civilians up the arse, as Big Oil, arms defense contractors and mercinaries circle-jerked over their faces.
And they feel less now, what with blaming “Arab” psychological flaws – murderous/terrorist over-rection to contractors starting massacres, getting all rilled about squaddies venting their “frustration” on hotelliers, rough facial cleansing and marines letting off steam for all the nasty untidiness now.
Anyone would think people didn’t like being invaded, occupied, kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed.
You can actually download these manuals – google them under `ministry of defence cultural appreciation manuals`. Reading em now.
Nice one. Thanks, Richard.