AMERİKALI YAZARLARIN IRAK SAVAŞI 2003-2011 ANLATILARINDA IRAKLI “ÖTEKİ” TEMSİLİ

Year 2018, Volume: 58 Issue: 1, 757 - 774, 01.01.2018

Merve Özman Kaya

Abstract

Yaşam yazını bir ulusun ulusal kimlik anlayışını gözlemlemek için ideal bir edebi türdür. Irak Savaşı 2003-2015 döneminde görev yapan Amerikalı politikacılar “Amerikalı”yı, ona atfettikleri ideal davranışları benimseme konusunda baskı altına alma ve onu düşünsel olarak tanımlama eğilimine sahiptir. Bazıları zamanın dış politikasını desteklemek ve meşrulaştırmak amacıyla yaşam anlatılarında Amerikan kimliğinin yanı sıra Iraklı “öteki” kimliğini de tanımlama çabasına girer. Cephede görev alan Amerikalıların anlatıları ise her iki kimliğin nasıl oluşturulduğu, nasıl yeniden biçimlendirildiği, içselleştirildiği, pekiştirildiği ve/veya çürütüldüğünü gösterir. Bu makale zamanın politikacı ve ordu mensuplarının Irak Savaşı anlatılarına odaklanarak, bu eserlerde Iraklı “öteki”ye yönelik önyargılı, genelleştirici, şahsiyetsizleştirici tutumları saptar. Eserlerdeki bu tutumlar göstermektedir ki, cephede görev yapmış yazarlar çoğu zaman Iraklı düşman ve siviller, direnişçi ve el-Kaide militanları, Orta Doğulu ve Müslümanlar arasındaki farkları göz ardı eder. Makalenin analiz kısmında, Paul Rieckhoff’un Chasing Ghosts: Failure and Facades in Iraq, A Soldier’s Perspective 2006 adlı savaş anlatısı üzerinden, “öteki” tanımının bireysel ve ulusal kimlik algılarının oluşumundaki rolü irdelenir; bahsi geçen olumsuz kimlik algısının sebepleri Rieckhof’un gözünden anlatılır. Bu bölüm adı geçen yazarların Iraklı “öteki” hakkındaki problemli tutumlarından ancak mitik Amerikan kimliği algısını sorgulamak ve kendi bireysel kimliklerini oluşturmak yoluyla kurtulabileceklerini ortaya koyar.

Keywords

Irak Savaşı, Iraklı “Öteki, ” Amerikan Ulusal Kimlik Algısı, Paul Rieckhoff, Chasing Ghosts

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE IRAQI “OTHER” IN THE IRAQ WAR 2003-2011 : MEMOIRS WRITTEN BY AMERICANS

Abstract

Life narratives are the perfect literary vehicle to observe conceptions of national identity. American politicians who served during the Iraq War 2003-2015 had the tendency to define the American ideationally, urging citizens to adopt the ideal attitudes they offered. Some of them employ definitions of the Iraqi “other” in their memoirs in order to justify and promote the foreign policy decisions of the time. Veteran memoirs, on the other hand, reflect how identities are formed, reformed, internalized, reinforced and/or refuted on the warfront. Focusing on the memoirs of Americans who served in Iraq, this article reveals that most of these memoirs harbor in them prejudiced, essentializing, and dehumanizing attitudes towards the Iraqi “other.” Such opinions and treatments address the civilian as well as the enemy; the individual insurgent as well as the al-Qaeda militant; the Middle Eastern as well as Muslims in general. My close reading of Chasing Ghosts: Failure and Facades in Iraq, A Soldier’s Perspective 2006 by Paul Rieckhoff, will show how defining the “other” is crucial in the formation of individual and national identities on the warfront. This analysis suggests that Americans can eliminate their negative opinions of the Iraqi “other” only when they question the mythical American identity and engage in an individual process of identity formation.

Keywords

Iraq War, Memoir, America, National Identity, Paul Rieckhoff, Chasing Ghosts

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