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

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 58 Sayı: 1, 757 - 774, 01.01.2018

Merve Özman Kaya

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Kaynakça

• Allan, Stuart and Barbie Zelizer. Eds. Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime. New York: Routledge, 2004.
• Ames, V.M. “No Separate Self.” The Philosophy of George Herbert Mead. Ed. W.R. Corti. Winterhur, Switzerland: Amiswiler Bucherie, 1973. 43-58.
• Altheide, David. “Consuming Terrorism.” Symbolic Interaction 27.3 (2004): 287-308. jstor.org. WEB. 20 Feb. 2018.
• Billig, M. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage, 1995.
• Blair, Jane. Hesitation Kills: A Female Marine Officer’s Combat Experience in Iraq. Lanham, MA: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2011. Kindle File.
• Boudreau, Tyler E. Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of Marine. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2008. Kindle File.
• Bremer, Paul L. My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.
• Burke, James. 2001. "The Military's Presence in American Society, 1950-2000." Soldiers and Civilians: The Civil-Military Gap and American National Security.
• Ed. Feaver, Peter D., and Richard H. Kohn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. Bush, George W. Decision Points. New York: Crown, 2010.
• Cash, Carey H. A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq. Nashville: 2004. Kindle File.
• Cheney, Dick. In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir. New York: Threshold Editions, 2010.
• Coe, Kevin and Rico Neumann. “Finding Foreigners in American National Identity: Presidential Discourse, People, and the International Community.”
• International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 819–840. http://ijoc.org. WEB. 10 October 2013.
• Coughlin, Jack and Donald A. Davis. Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper. New York: St. Martin’s, 2005. Kindle File.
• Delgado, Aidan. The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007. Kindle File.
• Gillis, John R. Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996.
• Gleaves, Whitney. “Presidential Memoirs: An Oversold Genre?” Paper 102. 23 June 2004. scholarworks.gvsu.edu. WEB. 20 Feb. 2018.
• Harley, James. The Trouble in Iraq: A Diary of a National Guardsman. Parker, CO: Outskirts Press, 2005.
• Hartley, Jason Christopher. Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq. New York: Perfect Bound-HarperCollins, 2005.
• Holland, Dorothy, et al. Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.
• Holmes, Richard. Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle. New York: Free Press, 1985.
• Khalid, Maryam. “Gender, Orientalism and Representations of the ‘Other’ in the War on Terror.” Global Change, Peace & Security 23.1 (2011): 15–29. tandfonline.com. WEB. 20 Feb. 2018.
• Koopman, John. McCoy’s Marines: Darkside to Baghdad. Minneapolis: Zenith Press, 2004. Kindle File.
• Kyle, Chris, Jim Defelice and Scott McEwen. American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. HarperCollins E-Books, 2012. Kindle File.
• Lappé, Anthony. “Chasing Ghosts: The Next Catch-22?” The Huffington Post. 5 April 2006. huffingtonpost.com WEB. 20 Feb. 2018.
• Middleton, Thomas A. Saber’s Edge: A Combat Medic in Ramadi, Iraq. Hanover: University Press of New England, 2009. Kindle File.
• Olson, Craig T. So This Is War: A 3rd U.S. Cavalry Intelligence Officer’s Memoirs of the Triumphs, Sorrows, Laughter, and Tears during a Year in Iraq. Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2007. Kindle File.
• Özman Kaya, Merve. “Identities under Construction: Iraq War, Life Writing and American National Identity.” Diss. Hacettepe University, 2015. openaccess. hacettepe.edu.tr WEB. 25 Feb. 2018.
• Rice, Condoleezza. No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington. New York: Crown, 2011.
• Rieckhoff, Paul. Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective. London: NAL Caliber, 2007.
• Red Dawn. Dir. John Milius. Perf. Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, Lea Thompson. United Artists, 1984. DVD.
• Rumsfeld, Donald. Known and Unknown: A Memoir. New York: Sentinel, 2011.
• Schatz, Robert T., Ervin Staub, and Howard Lavine. “On the Varieties of National Attachment: Blind Versus Constructive Patriotism.” Political Psychology 20.1 (1999): 151–74. jstor.org. WEB. 25 Sept. 2017.
• Smithson, Ryan. Ghosts of War: The True Story of A 19-Year-Old GI. New York: Harper/Teen, 2009.
• Stachyra, Anna. “Being and Becoming a U.S. Iraq War Veteran: An Exploration of the Social Construction of an Emerging Identity.” Dissertation. Chicago: Loyola University, 2001. ecommons.luc.edu. WEB. 1 September 2014.
• Turner, Brian. Phantom Noise. Northumberland, NE: Bloodaxe Books, 2010. Kindle File.
• Williams, Kayla. Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army. London: Phoenix, 2005.
• Wojteki, Matthew D. Every Other Four: The Journal of Cpl. Matthew D. Wojtecki, Weapons Company 3rd Battalion 25th Marines, Mobile Assault Team Eight.
• Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2010. Kindle File.