The Network of Certifiable Asshats

Small Wars Journal writes about the Network of Concerned Anthropologists who are apparently against using anthropological techniques as part of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and other places.

We, the undersigned, believe that anthropologists should not engage in research and other activities that contribute to counter-insurgency operations in Iraq or in related theaters in the “war on terror.” Furthermore, we believe that anthropologists should refrain from directly assisting the US military in combat, be it through torture, interrogation, or tactical advice....

The founders of this brave group who seek to prolong the misery of Iraq and see more people killed than necessary are: Catherine Besteman, Andrew Bickford, Greg Feldman, Gustaaf Houtman, Roberto Gonzalez, Hugh Gusterson, Jean Jackson, Kanhong Lin, Catherine Lutz, David Price, and David Vine.

I'll bet a donut that they're all screeching BDS afflicted moonbats. I'll also bet a donut that some of our SpecOps guys are better field anthropologists than the whole lot of this crew put together.

[UPDATE]
Commenter Peterargus directs us to this NYT article for more background on the military use of anthropology. He says its good and well written, and surprisingly it really is.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:00 PM

Comments

1 I thought the wanton use of anthropology (as in "Look out! They've got anthroplogists!") was outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

Posted by: -Shawn- at October 05, 2007 09:12 PM (oOs4m)

2 The rebuttal was gold baby!
pansies.....

Posted by: mbruce at October 05, 2007 09:24 PM (LLCm9)

Extraordinarily loose shit!

You break it, you bought it PA.

You owe Ace $1.73 for the blog.

Posted by: Entropy at October 05, 2007 09:24 PM (HgAV0)

4 The proclamation of their own bravery sure is something.

I'll bet the President will have them hanged for this. What? That doesn't happen in this country? Well, I'm sure they're brave in other ways. Like running across freeways.

Posted by: Z Ryan at October 05, 2007 09:26 PM (PDeVA)

5 Seeing "war on terror" in quotes reminded me that several times this week I have heard NPR "reporters" "report" from Iraq on the "so-called War on Terror". I suspect they are actually "so-called reporters", who are confused about their "job" and think that it is to make a "difference", rather than to "report". And you can quote me on that.

Posted by: sherlock at October 05, 2007 09:37 PM (ojW85)

6 </blockquote>

Fixed?

Posted by: thaitied at October 05, 2007 09:51 PM (uBBUD)

7 The average anthropology department makes the average English department look like an oasis of sanity.

Posted by: Banjo at October 05, 2007 09:59 PM (1DQ52)

8 Sir!, loose shit fixed, sir!

Posted by: Purple Avenger at October 05, 2007 10:02 PM (Pup3o)

9 We almost had a bunch of maniacs here.

Posted by: Dogstar at October 05, 2007 10:10 PM (FgxdU)

Another orifice heard from.

The American Society of Musicologists pulled the same clueless, self-important act about a year ago. They protested the use of loud music as torture.

When their spokesman was interviewed, he didn't recognize the names Zarqawi or Zawahiri. He was ignorant about the world and the War on Terror, but he sure knew where the enemy was: in the White House.

He also quivered in outrage that Hugh Hewitt referred to women as 'gals'. Gotta keep those priorities straight.

Posted by: lyle at October 05, 2007 10:17 PM (0LZe8)

11 These assholes truly are on the other side. They are no better than the jihadists. I also agree that our special forces are better at whatever it is those people do, than those peoplel themselves.

Posted by: Obstreperous Infidel at October 05, 2007 10:19 PM (qkSG+)

12 Uh.. file that under "who f*cking asked you?"..

Or is there some amazing counter-insurgent technique that anthropologists have that I don't know about? Do we have some kind of anti-terrorist superweapon based on pottery shards and bits of decayed animal sinew?

Posted by: Tomtastic at October 05, 2007 10:26 PM (5WRvx)

13 Here is a book that is edited by Besteman and Gusterston. Yeah, I don't think these folks are likely to be conservatives.

Posted by: Mike Z. at October 05, 2007 10:30 PM (GLMrI)

14 Sadly, this Gusterson masterwork is currently unavailable:

Orientalism and the arms race: An analysis of the neo-colonial discourse on nuclear non-proliferation (Working papers and proceedings of the Center for Psychosocial Studies)

Yeah, I'm gonna stick with my guess that Gusterson isn't a conservative.

Posted by: Mike Z. at October 05, 2007 10:33 PM (GLMrI)

15 You have to give Gusterston credit: who else could have brought shades of Edward Said, Jacques Derrida, and Lyall Watson to a single book title?

Posted by: Mike Z. at October 05, 2007 10:41 PM (GLMrI)

16 What's really sad about this is that during World War II, several anthropologists did advise the Army, and some even served in the OSS. In other words, they were brave and actually went out to fight fascism instead of sitting in the God-damned faculty lounge writing denunciations.

In a just world, these fucking assholes would get captured by jihadis on their next field expeditions and tortured and beheaded. Because evidently they approve of people being tortured and beheaded by jihadis so it's hardly fair to deprive them of that experience themselves.

Or, since they're so brave maybe they should go ahead and join the jihadis and get in a little of that torture and beheading action themselves. I'm sure many of them think of that just before climaxing into the Kleenex.

What the hell is wrong with these people? They're tenured scientists so presumably they can't be that fucking stupid. The only conclusion I can come to is that they really are a bunch of evil motherfuckers who honestly approve of terrorists murdering innocents.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 05, 2007 10:41 PM (xFUIO)

17 Hey! I've got an undergraduate degree in anthropology and an MA in physical antho!

The only good shit I learned about human cultures was in undergraduate. Once you get in graduate school it's all hermeneutics and rhetorical masturbation. In garduate school the only cool thing I learned was how to tell age, sex, and cause of death from skeletons---like in Bones. That was pretty nifty, but the dead usually smelled like...uh.....death and were covered with maggots. You could tell how long they were dead by measuring the maggots and stuff.

I learned alot there, but right now I'm pissed on Zinfendel and Xanax and can't remember what it was..

Posted by: Kasper Hauser at October 05, 2007 10:48 PM (TnQKB)

18 All I really want is your guys love, Really. That's it!

Posted by: Kasper Hauser at October 05, 2007 10:50 PM (TnQKB)

19 Anthro Team Assemble!

Posted by: eman at October 05, 2007 10:55 PM (ogja7)

20 I recently took a general anthropology course. Cultural anthropology stresses not "judging" other cultures. They even referred to FGM in a neutral tone. It just struck me as idiotic.

Posted by: CapitalistPiglet at October 05, 2007 10:56 PM (4paRT)

21 Ok, I'm usually just a prick who comes up with stupid, sometimes funny comebacks to shit like this. I am , for the 1st time in my life, just fucking speechless. How do you make fun of this crap? Just fucking got nothing. Except for my jaw on the floor, in awe of their utter useless, self important bullshit.

Posted by: hutch1200 at October 05, 2007 11:03 PM (EUyv0)

22 Anthro Team Assemble!

That is some funny shit!

Posted by: Kasper Hauser at October 05, 2007 11:12 PM (TnQKB)

23 Anthro Team Assemble!

That is some funny shit!

Posted by: Kasper Hauser at October 05, 2007 11:13 PM (TnQKB)

24 I understand the notion of attempting to be objective when studying other cultures. That's fine.

Just don't run around and say all cultures are of equal quality and then say there is some problem with us being warlike. Are we all the same, or not?

Fricken lefty morons. Same mistake, over and over and over and over and over. Blah.

Posted by: LiveFreeOrDie at October 05, 2007 11:17 PM (Bn5bJ)

25 I understand the notion of attempting to be objective when studying other cultures. That's fine.

Just don't run around and say all cultures are of equal quality and then say there is some problem with us being warlike. Are we all the same, or not?

Fricken lefty morons. Same mistake, over and over and over and over and over. Blah.

Posted by: LiveFreeOrDie at October 05, 2007 11:17 PM (Bn5bJ)

26 I understand the notion of attempting to be objective when studying other cultures. That's fine.

Just don't run around and say all cultures are of equal quality and then say there is some problem with us being warlike. Are we all the same, or not?

Fricken lefty morons. Same mistake, over and over and over and over and over. Blah.

Posted by: LiveFreeOrDie at October 05, 2007 11:21 PM (Bn5bJ)

27 I have a question: which standards organization certifies asshats?

ANSI? IEEE? ISO?

Those committee meetings must be brutal.

Posted by: JayC at October 06, 2007 12:31 AM (+1O2Q)

28 One word: Stargate Program!!! They all want Dr. Daniel Jackson's job.

Sandy Rules All

Posted by: Sandy Rules! at October 06, 2007 12:34 AM (tP90V)

29 So, the Army wants anthropological advice to reduce conflicts, gain cooperation, and lessen the number of victims of violence in the theater by reducing the length of the conflict...

...and this violates the ethical standards of a bunch of self-important academics.

Well, I guess in that case, those academics are evil. After all, their ethical standards call for increased bloodshed.

The scare quotes were a nice touch from these "academics."

Posted by: Merovign at October 06, 2007 03:16 AM (IaYDo)

30 Anthropology, Fuck YEAH!

Posted by: VRWC Agent at October 06, 2007 04:12 AM (Z3AmO)

31 When you lose The Network of Concerned Anthropologists, you've lost America.

Posted by: Privileged White Man at October 06, 2007 05:59 AM (blNMI)

32 "Abdul! Let us launch the attack on the hated American Infidels!"
(peering into binoculars) "Yes, let us... no, wait... they have an Anthropologist with them!"
"What? Surely we are doomed! Allah may be all-powerful, but even He can not oppose the awesome might of Anthropology! Let us commit suicide with this mortar instead!"

Posted by: Xoxotl at October 06, 2007 06:32 AM (tH4zz)

33 Hutch nails it: "self important bullshit"

I was on a campus recently (shudder) and I overheard some "social justice" professor talk about how she teaches philosophy to business students. Her awed audience thought that was pretty radical.

These people couldn't survive without government handouts--oops, I mean grant money.

Posted by: qrstuv at October 06, 2007 07:31 AM (QXefC)

34 Whenever I hear someone say "anthropology", I reach for my gun.

Posted by: Herr Morgenholz at October 06, 2007 08:23 AM (K/lgF)

35 The Pope? How many Anthropologists does he have?

Posted by: Uncle Joe at October 06, 2007 09:53 AM (ojW85)

36 Surprisingly well-written article in NYT on this program. It really provides context to PA's link and makes the NCA look like a bunch of whiny assholes: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?ex=1349236800&en=5eb51a47a96ca952&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Posted by: Peterargus at October 06, 2007 10:07 AM (w3i1F)

37 Maybe the military can make their own list of citizens that they will refuse to rescue or defend, and can include these dudes.

Posted by: Aaron at October 06, 2007 10:25 AM (C4NJk)

38 Anthro Team Assemble!

That explains it all: they're furries.

Posted by: Ranba at October 06, 2007 10:56 AM (h2MEX)

1. Get ye back to preparing clueless young people for a career at Starbucks (not corporate) and a life of overwhelming debt.

2. I am soooo downloading that form and filling out the fields with funny shit and mailing the same in. Forty-one cents spent harassing these assholes is money well-spent, I say. My Institution? Why, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, of course. Perhaps the New Power Generation or the International Jewish Conspiracy. (InJewCon)

Posted by: Alec Leamas at October 06, 2007 11:13 AM (bflEi)

40 C'mon, they have "Concerned" in the name. That translates into American as "Bed-Wetting Socialist Blitherers of the Worst Sort."

Posted by: Bob Hawkins at October 06, 2007 11:57 AM (pnBkj)

David Price

It wasn't me, I swear!

Posted by: TallDave at October 06, 2007 01:08 PM (r1Ip+)

C'mon, they have "Concerned" in the name.

They lefy out Deeply.

I guess they forgot to check Strunk and White for America-Hating Creeps and Sh*ts when they wrote their manifesto.

Posted by: maxxman at October 06, 2007 01:37 PM (OYeDg)

43 As a retired anthropologist (I am in atonement for that sin) I disagree with no.7 only to this extent. It is not true that anthro depts. only make English depts look sane, they make insane asylums look sane.

Posted by: Arthur E Hippler at October 06, 2007 01:41 PM (fEvss)

44 Odd - I've posted twice in this link and both disappeared - Have I been banned or something?

Posted by: Lokki at October 06, 2007 11:27 PM (6TIdE)

45 I am soooo downloading that form and filling out the fields with funny shit and mailing the same in.

My Institution? Why, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, of course.

LOL

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