Posted on 09/30/2003 5:52:26 AM PDT by mykdsmom
BAGHDAD -- World War II had its "krauts," Vietnam had its "gooks," and now, the War on Terrorism has its own dehumanizing name: "hajji. "
That's what many U.S. troops across Iraq and in coalition bases in Kuwait now call anyone from the Middle East or South Asia. Soldiers who served in Afghanistan say it also is used there.
Among Muslims, the word is used mainly as a title of respect. It means "one who has made the hajj ," the pilgrimage to Mecca .
That's not how soldiers use it.
Some talk about "killing some hajjis" or "mowing down some hajjis." One soldier in Iraq inked "Hodgie Killer" onto his footlocker.
Iraqis, friend or foe, are called hajjis. Kuwaitis are called hajjis. Even people brought in by civilian contractors to work in mess halls or drive buses are hajjis -- despite the fact that they might be from India, the Philippines or Pakistan, and might be Hindu or Christian.
The souvenir stands found on even the smallest U.S. bases in the Middle East and run by locals are called hajji shops. A cluster of small businesses inside a larger base is " Hajji Town."
The word has become the most obvious evidence of the deep gulf between the traditional cultures of the Middle East and Afghanistan and the young men and women of the U.S. military. Soldiers often have little knowledge of local culture beyond a 90-minute briefing they get before deployment.
"This is another reason that soldiers aren't good at winning the peace," Samer Shehata of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies said Monday. "This doesn't bode well for the reconstruction."
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Baghdad said Monday that the term was troubling but that there had been no official order to stop its use.
"This is more of a common-sense thing," he said. "It's like using any other derogatory word for a racial or ethnic group. Some may use it in a joking way, but it's derogatory, and I'm sure people have tried to stop it."
(Centcom has a new policy, the soldier said, of not allowing press spokesmen to identify themselves in the media .)
In Iraq, there is little interaction between U.S. soldiers and the people they arrived to liberate.
Soldiers in the most dangerous parts of Iraq, such as the Sunni Triangle west and north of Baghdad, seldom have contact with Iraqis except to train guns on them from passing Humvees as they scan for weapons.
Their officers say the situation makes it easy to view all Iraqis as a faceless, dangerous mass, even though many civilians are friendly, so they try hard to humanize Iraqis to reduce the likelihood of wrongful shootings.
Every war spawns epithets.
In World War II, the Americans became "Amis " to the Germans. To Americans, Germans were "krauts."
"Hajji," Shehata said, sounds like racist terms that U.S. soldiers used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, such as "towel-head."
The term brings back heavy memories for those who spent time in Vietnam during that war.
"That sounds familiar," said John Balaban, an N.C. State University English professor and poet-in-residence who has written about Vietnam and the war. As a conscientious objector, Balaban did alternative service in Vietnam.
" There were several words -- 'gook,' 'slope,' 'dink,' " he said. "Some of these were meaningless, but they were all working toward the same goal, of trivializing and depersonalizing the enemy.
"It makes it easier to kill these people and not feel bad about it."
I like it. It beats Raghead, Towelhead and Camel Jockey, and it's infinitely better than very unpolitically correct "sand nigger" that I have heard used some 20 years ago....
ON a similar note, I have a neighbor who served with Saudi and Kuwaiti doctors in the first Gulf War. He was referred to as "Infidel" and "Unbeliever" on a daily basis by his gracious hosts, who were no doubt expressing their gratitude to him for his service saving their country(s) from the armies of Saddam. (sarcasm indeed)
Oh B.S.....the only conscientious objectors who served in Vietnam were Combat Medics in the Army...I knew some fine ones...real heros...the kind of guys who go through mine fields and brave enemy machine gun fire to pull back their wounded...more than a few got themselves killed trying..This guy was no combat medic and therefore did NO Alternative Service in Vietnam What a crock and what a liar
"It makes it easier to kill these people and not feel bad about it."
Lets see they murder torture rape and kill their own...never mind what happend to our female POWs (compared to the compassionate treatment we have extened to them) Now this moron thinks that its "easier to kill and not feel bad bout it" so we dehumanize them.. Hey man ...whatever it takes for OUR guys to get home safe and sound...and if you think making up pet names or derogatory names makes it easier to live with it all ten years after..you ought to try it sometime you phony cry baby..
They have names for us ..we have names for them...big deal...that's life bubba haolie honky
Hajji aint so bad...after all that was the name of Jeannie's (Barb Eden) buddy on "I Dream of Jeannie"
I didn't like that then, and I don't like hearing this term is being used now over there. We need good will to grease the wheels of us achieving our objectives there, and epithets create anger that can maim or hurt our boys over there.
Like them or not, they are people with pride in them selves and their culture. And they react just like we do to derision. I was a Special Forces soldier, and this sort of thing runs deeply against the grain of my training.
They need to 'at ease' this s**t. ASAP.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.