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Making Enemies: The Reification of Essentialized Cultural Difference through "Legalized" Torture
Ist Teil von
Socialism and democracy, 2008-07, Vol.22 (2), p.207-224
Ort / Verlag
New York: Routledge
Erscheinungsjahr
2008
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
An examination of how the Bush administration's legitimization of torture through legal manipulations allows for the construction of the category of essentialized cultural differences & produces an enemy against which US military exploits can be legitimized. The normalization of Muslim targets as evil is consistent with other trends toward fascism. Giorgio Agamben's (1998) concept of a "state of exception" is used as an analytical framework to examine legal memorandums & executive orders used by the Bush administration to justify torture & the ideological tactics of the imperialist project, including the creation of the new category of "enemy combatants." Attention is given to the practice of conflating culture & politics that allows terrorist actions to be viewed as products of cultural practices instead of strategies based on political ideologies. It is contended that the Bush administration's designation of a specific group of people as absolute enemies on the basis of essentialized cultural differences is part of the implementation of a "Machpolitik with a definite political-economic agenda built on conscious & calculated ideological manipulation.". Adapted from the source document.