As an undergrad at some state college, I found myself horrified at the sheer lack of correct information about the Somali pirates disseminated within Western media over the course of the last few months. If the information was so utterly available to me, was it very hard for pundits or policymakers to crack open any ol' book on Somalia? Apparently so. I wrote this not only to fill a paper requirement but also for the purpose of spreading it around so people can actually understand what the situation in Somalia is what it is.
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In contemporary times, it is sometimes difficult to sift through all the information available in order to find the cold facts – the reality – of current events. This is made even more difficult due to the Internet, a source that is so perfect in its ability to disseminate data and educate its users yet so flawed as a result of the sheer amount of incorrect material within it. After months of close attention to the issue of the Somali pirates and a devotion to the general topic of contemporary Somalia, the reasons behind the actions of the Horn of Africa’s “buccaneers” still seemed to be steeped in myth and conflicting narratives. Branded as savage criminals by those unfamiliar with Somali history (i.e., most of the West), it is very unsurprising to see American media display such a woeful lack of knowledge on the subject of why the Somali pirates exist. This short essay was written with the intent of simply explaining the conditions that contributed to the birth of the Somali pirate ‘movement’; the information used in its composition was drawn from the most reliable sources on the subject in an attempt to ensure accuracy, a feat that the Western media has not been able to accomplish in its explanation of the Somali crisis in recent months.
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The residents of the self-destructing Somali Republic were in a dark situation upon the formal collapse of the state. Siyad Barre, the harsh dictator who had effectively enabled the collapse of the Republic through his supporting of clan violence and manipulation of Somali cultural norms through the doctrine of Scientific Socialism, had fled the country amidst a rebel invasion of the former capital at Mogadishu in 1991; after draining the treasury dry, Barre failed in his attempts at reestablishing power and was forced to flee to Kenya and eventually Nigeria. The organization which pushed Barre’s government out of Mogadishu – the United Somali Congress, led by former Somali National Army general Muhammad Farah Aideed – made an attempt at supplanting the ‘Supreme Revolutionary Council’ (SRC) of Barre with their own armed authority. This new government was populated primarily by members of the Hawiye clan, a group persecuted heavily due to their perceived opposition to Barre’s own Marrehan clan; the former government’s policy of arming pro-SRC clan militias had resulted in savage culling of groups such as the Mogadishu-based Hawiye and the northern coastal Isaq for their perceived disloyalty – a move which sparked the creation of a multitude of rebel groups that had not existed in any capacity until Barre’s attempts at clan cleansing .
Despite attempts at stabilization, the Somali Republic completely fragmented in the face of the old regime’s dissolution. Battles between the rival USC forces of General Aideed and Ali Mahdi, his chief official rival, led to the organization’s fall from power in Mogadishu; soon, the capital was claimed by multiple factions and city-wide fighting led to a virtual depopulating of the locale . The rest of the region followed suit as warlord-led rebel groups consolidated their power, establishing centers of authority across the former Somali nation through combat; the Somali National Movement, originally an Isaq militia formed in response to attacks from Barre supporters, gained enough influence in the war-torn northwest to declare the formation of an independent state based around the former administrative center of Hargeisa. This autonomous polity, Somaliland, remained unrecognized by the international community after its formation in 1991; later instability in eastern Somaliland led to declarations of independence by local militia groups – including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, another anti-Barre defensive group formed to protect members of the local Majerteen clan – and the eventual establishment of the Puntland governate in former northeastern Somalia. The two powers became fast rivals as their declared territories overlapped, leading to diplomatic difficulties in the north and even occasional skirmishes.
Foreign influence would soon have a large impact upon the new power structure of the former Somali territories. While two states vied for power in the north, local Islamist forces – empowered with foreign support from hardline Islamic organizations – emerged from the tumult and managed to establish its own power bloc in the south . Consisting of many different Islamist organizations at first, the number of organizations joined together under a system of Islamic law to form the loose affiliation that would come to be known as the Union of Islamic Courts. Although very conservative in their theological outlook as strict supporters of shari’ah law, the Courts managed to gain large public support and were able to batter the warlord-led militias from their centers of power in the south by the mid-1990’s. The decisive victories of the Islamists assisted in garnering even wider encouragement due to the granting of weapons and money to the warlords by the American Central Intelligence Agency for the purpose of combating Somali ‘terrorism’ . The Islamist forces, despite incursions from Western-backed Ethiopia and occasional clashes with other foreign forces including those of the United States, have continued to expand their influence across southern and eventually central Somalia; other than the small enclaves of territory held by the Somali Transitional Federation Government, an entity largely unrecognized by the Somali public and existing solely due to foreign (namely Ethiopian) support, the politics of the south are driven largely by the Union of Islamic Courts.
Before and during this period, the quality of life in Somalia was facing a stark decrease. The varied infrastructure in the country as a result of its colonial past – the region was ruled over by multiple states who dealt with their holdings in varying degrees of support – was falling apart due to the expiration of the state; Siyad Barre’s Scientific Socialist programs, largely criticized due to their disagreement with Somali traditional customs but supported due to their positive impact on the nation’s infrastructure and economy, were no longer in effect . Aid from the Ogaden War’s influx of refugees into Somali territories had disappeared by 1991, leaving the country with a large amount of people who could not be supported by the crumbling Somali economy; the state’s collapse did nothing to help support the many new residents Somalia had gained in the last decade, leading to a massive increase in financial poverty and health issues . In addition, constant warfare between Somali factions and incursions from foreign entities (including the United Nations) had weakened the already unsupported infrastructure of the region. This allowed for an effective disintegration of the Somali economy; an increase in crime and militia activity for the purpose of survival soon followed. By this point, militias loyal to General Aideed had begun raiding aid convoys arriving from the coast, depriving any residents who would have received the food and contributing to the rapidly worsening regional food crisis . Undoubtedly, the fall of the government and the subsequent regional infighting played a massive part – if not contributing the most – in impoverishing the Somali public.
The collapse of the state not only heralded the beginnings of massive internal problems but also the arrival of new ones. Sensing opportunity in the troubled region, Western forces began to utilize Somalia and its nearby waters – now unguarded due to the complete lack of a Somali naval force – for a number of purposes, all of which harmed the effectively defenseless Somalis in varying degrees. According to an essay written by Somali entertainer and former Mogadishu resident Kanaan Warsame, European commercial organizations had begun to take advantage of Somalia’s political chaos by acquiring “dumping licenses” from regional warlords, including USC figure Ali Mahdi, which allowed them to deposit hazardous waste along and on the Somali coast . As stated by Johann Hari in the Huffington Post, many of the commercial organizations discovered to be dealing with Somali warlords for the purpose of dumping were business fronts used by reputable European companies to quietly (and frugally) dispose of their toxic materials; as is the case in the least with Ali Mahdi, the authority figures that Western sources dealt with in securing dumping contracts did not actually represent the areas where the material was dumped, leading to widespread pollution along the Somali coast in exchange for amounts of money that are very paltry (approx. $3/ton) in comparison to what the companies would have had to pay to legally dispose of the toxic material (approx. $1000/ton) . Respected European entities were not the only organizations utilizing Somalia as a place for hazardous dumping: according to retired United Nations Environmental Programme director Mustafa Tolba, La Cosa Nostra – the worldwide Sicilian crime ring well known for its participation in the disposal of Mediterranean chemical waste – contributed heavily to the pollution of Somali waters . Waste management facilities, hospitals and scientific facilities were the largest sources of the very chemicals which would wash up on Somali shores after the regional tsunami of 2005 – entire communities were inflicted with toxic sicknesses and several deaths from exposure to nuclear materials were reported .
While the dumping of toxic materials was taking place, another aspect of the West’s influence was felt by residents of the Somali coasts. By 1991, the global stock on free fishing had begun to dwindle due to overfishing and many foreign (from Asia and Europe specifically) suppliers had begun securing contracts with smaller coastal countries that did not have the capacity to fully utilize their own offshore stock in order to avoid profit loss . At the time of the state collapse, Somalia’s waters were rich with fish and largely utilized by local Somalis for substinence: state failure had turned fishing into an essential industry for most coastal Somalis since trade and most industries had been completely disabled. The waters around the Horn of Africa were also completely unguarded due to the lack of state authority; they quickly came under review by European companies who had begun to look away from traditional fishing locales due to a European Union-imposed restriction on overfishing. Reportedly, Russian and Spanish commercial fishing assessors began to research the capacity of Somalia’s offshore territory for commercial fishing and discovered that the region could prove to be immensely lucrative to their endangered industries .
By 1992, unmarked foreign ships illegally gathering large amounts of fish from Somali waters were an increasingly common sight. Soon enough, these alien crafts came into contact with Somali substinence fishermen; relations between the two groups quickly entered the realm of violence as the crews of the illegal ships battered and killed most fishermen with whom they came into contact. According to Kenyan analyst Mohamed Waldo, incidents of physical assault, sabotage of Somali fishing equipment and outright destruction of Somali fishing vessels came to characterize the relationship between the foreign fishermen and the Somalis . Over the course of the 1990’s, more varied ships began to arrive in Somali waters yet many followed a similar pattern: after driving off local fishermen, the vessels would overfish the areas and move on to the next most fertile territory before laundering their goods at Indian Ocean island polities such as the Maldives or the Seychelles . In denying the fishermen access to their regular fishing areas, the livelihood of coastal villages in Somalia began to falter and its residents not only suffered monetarily but also faced a new challenge due to a lack of food, as much of the fish was caught in order to simply feed the populations; at the same time, the foreign vessels were utilizing this desperately needed resource for their own profits, earning over $300 million (approx.) every year as a result of their illegal fishing .
The interference of foreign crafts into the Somali fishing industry – one of the few options that coastal residents could still turn to in order to survive – was a breaking point for some Somalis. For most of the 1990’s, the generally weak but still recognized Somali authorities had named the foreign destruction of the environment and interference in Somali substinence fishing as two chief concerns. The Somali public, too, regarded the issue of foreign damage done to the coasts as a major problem in the process of restabilizing the country: the overfishing removed a source of economic prosperity from the Somali commercial sector while the dumping generated widespread pollution that generated health problems along the coast . However, as acknowledged by famed linguist and lecturer Noam Chomsky, the global community had all but forgotten about the failed state of Somalia after the brutality experienced by United States Marines in the capital at Mogadishu in 1993 at the hands of rival militias and Islamists . Forced into poverty by violent instability and now foreign involvement, groups of coastal residents began to follow the model of the inland clan militias and armed themselves. Weapons were plentiful in every region of Somalia: dealers worked out of Mogadishu, readily shipping weapons north, and others traveled from Yemen to reap profits from the turf battles experienced across the Gulf of Aden . Supplied with weapons and already possessing boats, former Somali fishermen began to strike out against the foreign crafts responsible for the acts of dumping and illegal overfishing. These ‘pirates’ began to take control of any and all foreign vessels in Somali waters, bringing them to bases on land such as the city of Eyl and the former provincial center of Bosaso and demanding ransom for their return of the crafts themselves as well as their crews and supplies. The countries of origin of the many crafts brought in by the Somalis were quite varied: “Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Russia, Britain, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Yemen, Egypt…” and even crafts from neighboring Kenya were captured and ransomed . The pirates were not all joined together into one central faction: three major rival blocs emerged, the strongest of which was the “Somali Marines” – a highly structured, well-armed faction possessing a veritable fleet of converted fishing crafts and skilled fighters . The funds brought in by the various pirate factions removed the difficulty of substinence living for the largely underprivileged coastal Somalis: by spending a generally small amount of money on weaponry and supplies in order to execute high-risk missions against foreign vessels, the pirates were obtaining comparably gigantic gains .
The Somali pirate factions immediately garnered the attention of the region’s Islamist groups. Stating that the piracy being committed by coastal Somalis is un-Islamic and not in accordance with their strict shari’ah law, the Union of Islamic Courts concluded that the threat of regional piracy needed to be ended in order for an Islamic Somali state to emerge . The contributions made by the burgeoning pirate economy toward the production and consumption of khat, an intoxicating herb considered by many Somalis to be a “social drug”, did not improve relations between the two power blocs . Drawing on the former funding of warlords by the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Union of Islamic Courts accused the pirates of being agents of foreign interest and, as dangers to the Islamic Somali state, those who had to be punished Islamic militias from the south moved into regions of Puntland to disrupt pirate activities, effectively cutting communications between the various nautical groups and pushing them out of their landed center of power at Eyl as well as the surrounding region. Sensing a threat in the expansion of Islamist authority, Ethiopian forces quickly entered the already occupied Puntlander territories, routing the ICU forces from the region; within just a few months, the pirates had returned and were more powerful (and popular) than ever before .
The impact of the pirates upon landed Somali was quite noticeable in all sectors of coastal life. The actions of the pirates produced massive profit – according to one source, at least $150 million a year – which quickly found its way back into the Somali coastal economy . ABCNews reported that the city of Harardhere, a village used the pirates as a place of resupplying due to its proximity to the shore, had a booming economy with many new jobs and active industries due to the highly profitable nature of their business; the 2008 hijacking of a Saudi Arabian oil megatanker – the MV Sirius Star – netted the pirates several million dollars, most of which was directed into local construction and luxuries . According to one Sugule Dahir, a businessman in the “pirate city” of Eyl in southeastern Puntland, the general public supports the pirates due to their economic impact which has allowed modern industries such as cellphone providers and even internet cafes to open in the region . The pirates began to garner even greater support among the people for their positive impact on the general anarchic state of Somali society.
Thus, the Somali pirates emerged due to the combination of internal state collapse and the threat imposed upon the coastal population by foreign marauders. Regardless of foreign opinion and even some local sentiment in the Islamist south (now controlled by competing organizations due to the failure of the Union of Islamic Courts in the face of direct Ethiopian assault in 2008), it is evident – as seen through the public support gained by the pirates and the integral nature of a criminal industry as central to the Somali coastal economy – that the issue of Somali piracy is an extremely complicated one that is most certainly not limited to simple, opportunistic criminal behavior. The situation in Somalia is a sudden focal point in local news due to the recent attack by pirates on the MV Maersk Alabama, a Danish ship crewed by Americans; recent calls have been made by the Somali Transitional Federal Government’s Prime Minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, in favor of a Western land invasion of central and northern Somalia to oust pirates from their ‘lairs’, drawing the worry of Somalis in the area whose only real livelihood is the piratical industry . A forceful hand will not prove useful in dealing with this situation – it is an informed mind that is required in reining in the Somalia issue.
Works Cited
Boukhars, Anouar. “Understanding Somali Islamism.” Terrorism Monitor 4 (10), 2006.
Chomsky, Noam. “The Somalia Syndrome.” Khaleej Times, December 23 2007, final edition, via http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=opinion&xfile=data/opinion/2007/december/opinion_december88.xml.
Dalton, Christopher and Richard Lobban. Providence Journal. December 18 2008, Opinions section. “Richard Lobban/Christopher Dalton: An action plan against Somali pirates.”
Freeman, Colin and Justin Stares. “Pirates fear the lash of shariah law.” Telegraph, January 6 2009, final edition, via http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1531507/Pirates-fear-the-lash-of-sharia-law.html.
Hari, Johann. “You Are Being Lied to About Pirates.” The Huffington Post, January 4 2009, final edition, via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari.
Hassan, Mohamed Olad and Elizabeth Kennedy. “Somali Pirates Transform Villages Into Boomtowns.” ABC News Online, November 19 2008, final edition, via http://abcnews.go.com/International/WireStory?id=6288745&page=1.
Lewis, Ioan M. Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, and Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Marchal, Roland. “Islamic Political Dynamics in the Somali Civil War Before and After September 11” in de Waal, Alex (ed.). Islamism and its Enemies in the Horn of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Scahill, Jeremy. “Putting Today’s ‘Pirate’ Attack in Context.” The Huffington Post, April 9 2009, final edition, via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-scahill/putting-todays-pirate-att_b_184752.html.
Waldo, Mohamed Abshir. “The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?” Wardheer News, January 8 2009, final edition, via http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_09/Jan/Waldo/08_The_two_piracies_in_Somalia.html.
“Pirates attack US-flagged vessel.” Al Jazeera English, April 15 2009, final edition, via http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/04/200941535812735766.html.
“’Toxic waste’ behind Somali piracy.” Al Jazeera English, October 11 2008, final edition, via http://www.english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008.
“Kenya ‘will try Somali pirates’.” BBC News, April 16 2009, final edition, via http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8003031.stm.
“Somalia’s pirates face battle at sea.” BBC News, September 29 2008, final edition, via http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7358764.stm.
“Somali pirates vow to stand and fight.” Times Online, October 5 2008, final edition, via http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4882260.ece.
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It is important to stay informed about these sort of things, and that is why I did the paper. If you think anyone you know could use it, by all means send it to them - it's an interesting situation.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Cyborgs: Beyond the Realm of Robocop Fanfiction
For one of the more personally intensive courses I took this semester, I researched Donna Haraway's critical "cyborg theory", which commented on the futility of contemporary feminist theory due to the reality of changing identity in today's world. I applied this theory to suicide bombers, a subject of personal interest, through investigating how cyborgs were displayed in elements of popular media and news. Sound confusing enough? Wait until you read it!
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“A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”, Donna Haraway’s extensive critical evaluation of feminist ideology and human identity, came to inspire many academic examinations within fields such as sociology and evolutionary theory. A large amount of scholarly research has been completed on the application of cyborg theory: analyses have been composed on the subject of figures ranging from comic book super heroes and movie characters to the modern military. Through such applications of cyborg theory, much is revealed about the contemporary world’s view on the subject of human-machine hybrids – namely, that they are questionable in nature due to their dangerous abilities and possess greater aptitude for survival at the loss of their morality. Sources promoting ‘cyborgization’ as a form of secondary evolution indicate that this fear of ‘cyborgs’, or cybernetic organisms, stems from humanity’s stark suspicion toward technology and the danger that could be posed by a combination of a human’s intelligence and a machine’s efficiency. Western society’s conclusion on the subject of suicide bombers – figures best described as weaponized humans, committing potentially massive damage at a literal loss of their humanity in order to ensure efficiency – is very much akin to the portrayal given to cyborgs within popular media. When scholarly analyses of cyborgs as depicted within entertainment outlets – written works, films and televisions shows – are compared to the way that suicide bombers are viewed by Western sources, it becomes evident that there are very many similarities in their depictions. A deeper investigation into Haraway’s view of the cyborgs themselves, as well as supporting documents on the use of the theory in analyzing the depiction of cyborgs by both popular media and scholarly sources, reveals that there is much potential for the accurate application of cyborg theory to suicide bombers.
Constructing the Cyborg, One Feminist Science
Fiction Character At A Time: Haraway’s Manifesto
The core document of cyborg theory is, as mentioned, Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”; within it are descriptions of beings similar in nature to the commonly depicted suicide bomber. Haraway describes her cyborg – to her, an ideal form of life for humanity in comparison to the constantly multiplying factors which prevent any sense of unity – as popularly viewed as superior due to their advanced states, completely unavailable to humanity, as well as their deserving suspicious due to their lack of moral standing . The differences between cyborgs and humans stems mainly through their use of technology as a major component of their identity, allowing for an end to sectarian rivalries and a new unity formed around the use of technology. Cyborgs effectively “mock” traditional Western morality and humanity itself through this ability to transcend the bounds of the basic person; as a result they are considered “without spirit” in comparison to a real human and not in possession of true human characteristics .
In investigating the depth of the cyborg, Haraway applies her theory to several figures in feminist-oriented science fiction. Citing the works of Audre Lorde, feminist identity activist and writer, Haraway identifies the character “Sister Outsider” – a recurring personality in several of Lorde’s essays – as a potential cyborg. Transcendent from the difficulties of human behavior, Sister Outsider’s uniqueness is perceived by normal humans to be threatening to the social status quo and potentially harmful to the safety of their various communities . Haraway also cites Cherrie Moraga’s seminal take on La Malinche, the Nahua informant and mistress to infamous Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, as a cyborg due to her enigmatic position as an assistant in the conquering of her own indigenous people as executed in vernaculars titled by Haraway as “conqueror’s languages”, English and Spanish (within Moraga’s narrative) . Similar in both examples is the ambiguity of La Malinche and Sister Outsider by Haraway as well as the suspicion directed at both figures due to their positions of uniqueness.
In concluding her work, Haraway examines the roles played by machines and humans in the relationship between the two. The explicit, definite roles given to both categories have come to chafe upon those participating in the system of multi-group solidarity. Like the differences between many human groups, Haraway believes that the gap separating humans and machinery has begun to shrink. For the last several centuries, machines have been increasingly filling in the roles of humans in categories such as industrial work and military matters; at the same time, humanity has become increasingly mechanical in its behavior and its response to change . Within this framework and in support of this paper’s thesis, there is great potential for a human to act as an explosive weapon’s targeting system in place of a piece of technology due to the changing identity of humanity in relation to the role of machines. In the following passage, Haraway sums up her beliefs on the subject.
“It is not clear who makes and who is made in the relation between human and machine. It is not clear what is mind and what body in machines that resolve into coding practices. In so far as we know ourselves in both formal discourse (for example, biology) and in daily practice (for example, the homework economy in the integrated circuit), we find ourselves to be cyborgs, hybrids, mosaics, chimeras.”
“Hotties Can’t Be Terrorists”: Paradise Now and Its Reception
Haraway’s repeated expressions on the perceived ambiguity of the cyborg, and subsequently the fear aimed at a figure with such potential to interrupt the natural balance of things, is akin to the way in which suicide bombers are viewed by the Western media. The recent example of the film Paradise Now show succinctly that attempts to even vaguely humanize the efforts or identities of a suicide bomber – in this case, portraying the motives of a suicide bomber as challenging to the public view of such figures – have been met with stark hostility within the realm of public opinion. The Arabic-language film Paradise Now – released in 2005 by director Hany Abu-Assad – focuses on several days in the lives of Said and Khaled, Palestinian residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, who have been recruited for the purpose of suicide bombing against Israeli targets. The two characters are developed: they have a history of friendship and, as the movie progresses, poignant personal views on the subject of their mission. The movie ends ambiguously – in the true nature of a cyborg – with the viewers left to determine for themselves as to whether or not the actual act of suicide bombing ever took place.
The movie went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005; it did so, however, amidst major criticism against the humanization of the suicide bombers. Critics stated that the suicide bombers in the film were unrealistic and incorrectly humanized for the purpose of garnering an anti-Israeli sentiment. Israeli movie reviewer Irit Linor labeled the production a “Nazi film”, denouncing the movie for its depiction of non-traditional suicide bombers – they were physically attractive and humble, instead of calculating and misguided – and its role as potential anti-Israeli propaganda as a result of the depth given to the humanity of the suicide bombers . Linor’s review speaks of a stereotyped suicide bomber: faceless and already dehumanized not only by the nature of their task but also their lack of regard for their own humanity. New York Times staff member Stephen Holden regarded the film’s main theme as paranoia, citing the overt fear felt not only by the terrorist network and the Israeli state toward one another but also focusing on internal suspicion: the suicide bombing handlers panicked as a result of a lack of communication between their agents, and an Israeli operative assisted the suicide bombers in gaining access to their sites of detonation . The following passage by Holden characterizes the negative critical views given to Paradise Now.
“Given the explosive political climate in the Middle East, humanizing suicide bombers in a movie risks offending some viewers in the same way that humanizing Hitler does. Demons make more convenient villains than complicated people with their complicated motives. Especially after 9/11, it is easier for some in the United States to imagine a suicide bomber as a 21st-century Manchurian Candidate - a soulless, robotic shell of a person programmed to wreak destruction - than it is to picture a flesh-and-blood human being doing the damage.”
The critical reaction directed specifically at the humanization of suicide bombers in Paradise Now speaks volumes about the similarities between Abu-Assad’s Said and Khaled and Haraway’s cyborgs. The paranoia mentioned by Holden as exemplifying the atmosphere of the film, characterizing relations not only between the suicide bombers and the Israeli state but also between the suicide bombers themselves, is explicitly similar to the paranoia spoken of by Haraway as a major factor in the human perception toward the idea and eventual role of cyborgs in society. The challenge to the status quo presented by Haraway’s cyborgs is similar to the role filled by suicide bombers, and the attempts made by Abu-Assad in characterizing his suicide bombers in a way that transcended paranoid stereotypes was perceived to be morally volatile. The film’s ambiguous ending seems to be the only part of the movie approved of by critics: true to their nature, the Palestinian operative obviously completed their mission by completing a self-bombing and contributing to the accepted stereotype of the myopic suicide operative. While the unquestionable political nature of the film is at fault for a portion of the criticism leveled at Paradise Now – debates managed to break out even over the Golden Globes’ labeling of the film’s location of origin as “Palestine” – the director’s choice to depict suicide bombers as more human than Holden’s ‘mechanical killers’ contributed very much to the plentiful criticism directed at the film.
Of Iron Man and Martyrs: Alcoholic Mechanized Geniuses and Sympathetic Killing Machines
An ambiguous existence and a lack of morals as a result of technological superiority seem to be running themes in the many depictions of cyborgs within popular media. Mark Oehlert’s scholarly article “From Captain America to Wolverine: Cyborgs in Comic Books, Alternative Images of Cybernetic Heroes and Villains” elaborates upon the ways in which cyborgs are framed by the writers of comic books as the author groups all comic book cyborgs into one of four categories . The most poignant of these to the subject of suicide bombers would be “controller cyborgs” such as Wolverine and Iron Man: figures who are enhanced through surgical methods – Wolverine’s strengthened skeletal structure and adamantium claws – or through means that do not fundamentally change their biological structure, as seen in Iron Man’s utilization of metal suit that grants him superhuman capabilities while also sustaining his weakened heart . Oehlert’s controller cyborgs are the most similar of his examples to suicide bombers, as they do not modify their constitutive structures in order to excel through means of technology; instead, suicide bombers utilize “low-tech” cyborg mechanics in order to increase effectiveness.
In order to compensate for the cyborg’s ambiguous nature within comic books, they are brought to life not as unattainable beings but as emotive and humanized. The efficiency and abilities of a cyborg super hero in attaining goals is cited by Oehlert as a “double-edged sword” due to the systematic and assumedly inhuman way that cyborgs accomplish their missions; the struggles of many cyborg characters, most commonly between their moral human parts and the technological nature which has come to demonize them in the fearful eyes of the public, presents a problem of identity for cyborg super heroes. This viewpoint can certainly be applied to suicide bombers: the popularized simplistic view of a suicide bomber as little more than an ideologically-driven and commonly coerced individual prevents the possibility for suicide bombers to be considered fully human. In order to combat this general perception that cyborgs are morally aloof and obsessed with programmed directives, Oehlert states that cyborg super heroes have been brought down to an understandably human level through the institution of realistic storylines such as the ongoing difficulty of depressive alcoholism suffered by Iron Man and Shadowhawk’s eventual death by an AIDS-related illness . The personalization granted to Paradise Now’s Khaled and Said was enacted by the film’s creator to better elaborate upon the humanity and motives behind the bombers; this is similar to the actions put forth by comic books writers who attempted to establish a sense of humanity for their suspiciously regarded cyborg characters . The ambiguity of suicide bombers as a result of their detected lack of human qualities and heightened technological ability is equally shared by comic book cyborgs, a group to which cyborg theory has been thoroughly applied.
What Cavemen and Hamas Have In Common: Military Cyborgs
Cyborg theory has also been applied to the use of advanced technology in modifying human abilities and morality on the battlefield – a factor which would completely change the face of contemporary war. D.S. Halacy, Jr. ‘s study of cyborg theory, Evolution of the Superman, discusses this issue notably. Halacy states that one of the very first reasons that humans began to develop exosomatically – that is, beyond biological means through a use of tools and general technology – was in order to gain military superiority and ensure survival; in his words, “the caveman with a club was not particularly sophisticated unless we compare him with the unarmed caveman he attacked” . Later military developments including the formalization of technocentric battlefield figures such as the knight or cataphract – types of warriors whose effectiveness relied upon their use of technology such as heavy plate armor, long lances and advancing cavalry techniques – supports Halacy’s claim that cyborgization has placed an essential role in human development since its inception.
Only recently has true cyborgization – that is, the literal joining of human and machine to increase effectiveness as opposed to the otherwise simple utilization of advanced battlefield accoutrements – come to define human military development. Haley believes that great success has been seen in this advancement: the American Navy’s frogmen corps of World War II accomplished acts of lauded valor and achievement by using new technologies such as artificial lungs and water-safe plastic explosives in a way that would have been completely unthinkable only years beforehand . Due to these successes, military technology – as driven by government agencies, the largest proponents of military advancements in the world – has begun to incorporate distinctly cyborg-esque technologies into its bank of ideas. The United States Air Force, for example, has made ground in studying the legitimacy of assisting the assimilation of a human into the system as an integral part of the targeting mechanism for its aircraft . Haley suggests that the literal “wedding of living systems with artificial” for military means is most certainly an eventual goal due to the distinct advantages using such technology would bestow; it has already been used, to a lesser degree, in kamikaze planes and “Baka bombs” – vehicles piloted with the sole purpose of self-destruction in order to ensure efficiency .
By Halacy’s standard, the use of cyborg theory in analyzing military advancements directly supports the emergence of suicide bombing as a technology and a tactic. At its root, the suicide bomb is a complex weapons system which puts to use the abilities of a human targeting system in ensuring the most effective use of the armaments which that person possesses (in the case of a suicide bomber, an explosive device). Its emergence can be seen as the newest step in military technology, similar to Haley’s example of the Baka bomb, in that the weapon can be used to its most full extent as it is joined with a human. In attempting to explain the role of suicide bombing within modern warfare, Talal Asad cites political analyst Robert Pape’s belief that suicide bombers should be viewed as an integral part of the ever-changing face of contemporary war .
In order to counteract the superior technology of their opponents, the less prepared or technologically equipped combatants in a conflict improvise and work as effectively as possible with the equipment available. According to Diego Gambetta, editor of the Making Sense of Suicide Missions compilation, it is the “weaker side of a conflict” who utilizes suicide bombing as a means of necessary tactics . In order to succeed against a superior power, lesser forces utilize technology – becoming cyborgs – in order to exceed their own abilities and achieve their goals. This theory is supported by the following quote from Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin, the co-founder of Hamas – a Palestinian paramilitary faction which consistently utilizes suicide bombing against Israeli civilians and military targets.
“Once we have warplanes and missiles, then we can think of changing our means of legitimate self-defense. But right now, we can only tackle the fire with our bare hands and sacrifice ourselves.”
Upon the assassination of Yassin, United States ambassador John Negroponte commented upon the ideology of Hamas as depraved and without morals. He specifically noted the late Yassin as a preacher of hatred and inhumanity, citing his words on the subject of suicide bombing as glorifying the killing of civilians . This can be equated to Haraway’s comments on the resistance faced by cyborgs for their refusal to adhere to societal norms – in this case, the United States’ opinion on the use of suicide bombing against Israeli targets.
The general perception to such tactics is one of horror and undeniable inhumanity. To Asad, this Western view of suicide bombing has come as a result of the sanitization of warfare through the promotion of “morally superior” computerized methods of fighting . In utilizing suicide bombing tactics, Asad states, the participants of such attacks may face dehumanization and accusations of moral ambiguity through “their deliberate transgression of boundaries that separates the human from the inhuman” . The concept of suicide bombers emerging as a result of constantly advancing human-machine hybridization in military technology and the subsequent moral denouncement of these figures for their transcendence of human bounds fits succinctly into cyborg theory.
The growing role of suicide tactics and material as a means of effective improvisational technology can be explained through the efficiency offered through such methods of cyborgization. The use of ‘cyborg’ technologies, namely the joining of human and machine in forming – in this case – a weapon, is seen by its users as a boon through displays of its effectiveness. Stephen Hopgood’s analysis of the suicide tactics of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) states that the use of a suicide truck bombing against a Sri Lankan government compound caused damage on a scale that was not possible with other weapons available to the LTTE; the strike allowed for enemy government troops to be overwhelmed immediately in a victory that would not have been achieved if it were not for effectiveness of suicide truck bombing . This feat was only possible through the Tamil Tigers’ use of cyborgization – combining their literal technology with a human participant. Another example of suicide bombing’s effectiveness through cyborgization is the more infamous attack upon American locales on September 11th, 2001. According to Kalyvas and Sanchez-Cuenca, the 2001 attacks on World Trade Centers and the Pentagon would not have been as efficient as they were if it had not been for their use of suicide as a tactic; this can be seen through the failure of the attempted bombing of the World Trade Centers in 1993 by conventional means . The efficiency of suicide bombing is a result of the general technological inability to prevent it: the uncomplicated nature of suicide bombing technology allows for easy use by almost any subject, and its general undetectability assists in its maximum effectiveness in terms of placement. This leads to a general sense of paranoia toward suicide technology as a result of its morally tenebrous position within wartime and terror tactics. The following quote by Kalyvas and Sanchez-Cuenca summarizes the subject.
“A person wearing a bomb is far more dangerous and far more difficult to defend against than a timed device left to explode in the marketplace. This human weapons system can effect last-minute changes based on the ease of approach, the paucity or density of people, and the security measures in evidence.”
Conclusion, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and End The Paper
Through an analysis of the similarities shared between subjects deemed to be ‘cyborgs’ under Haraway’s theory and suicide bombers as a continuation of human military cyborgization, it is safe to say that cyborg theory can be applied to suicide theory and supported by the scholarly interpretations of its various roles in technology. If analyzed within the framework of the important role of public opinion toward cyborgs for their alternate identities, suicide bombers are regarded similarly: morally ambiguous and without the human standing to act properly, they are a threat to the status quo. The trend of cyborgization in terms of human military advancement shows equal amounts of similarity in that suicide bombers seem to be another step in the fabled direction of ultra-efficient and resourceful human-machine hybridization. Through an application of Haraway’s general cyborg theory to suicide bombers, it becomes quite evident that they are very much subject to the “Manifesto” and supportive cyborg-related academic documents.
Works Cited
1. Asad, Talal. On Suicide Bombing. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
2. Bloom, Mia. Dying to Kill: the Allure of Suicide Terror. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
3. Gambetta, Diego. “Can We Make Sense of Suicide Missions?” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 259-300. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
4. Halacy, Jr., D.S. Cyborg – Evolution of the Superman. New York/London: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965.
5. Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, 149-181. New York; Routledge, 1991.
6. Holden, Stephen. “Terrorists Facing their Moment of Truth.” The New York Times (October 2005). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/movies/28para.html?_r=1&ex=1175486400&en=12f6093d0860ee9c&ei=5070 (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
7. Hopgood, Stephen. “Tamil Tigers, 1987-2002.” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 43-76. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
8. Kalyvas, Stathis and Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca. “Killing Without Dying: The Absence of Suicide Missions.” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 209-232. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
9. Linor, Irit. “Anti-Semitism Now.” YNetNews.com (February 2006). http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3212503,00.html (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
10. Negroponte, John. “U.N. Must Condemn Hamas Terrorism as Well as Israeli Assassination, March 23, 2004”. United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy (March 2004). http://www.usembassy.it/viewer/article.asp?article=/file2004_03/alia/a4032408.htm (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
11. Oehlert, Mark. “From Captain America to Wolverine: Cyborgs in Comic Books, Alternative Images of Cybernetic Heroes and Villains,” in The Cyborg Handbook, edited by Chris Hables Gray, 219-232. New York/London: Routledge, 1995.
12. Shiloh, Scott. "Film Depicting Human Side of Suicide Bombers Wins Golden Globe.” Arutz Sheva (January 2006). http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/96814 (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
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I hope you got something out of it - I think I did.
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“A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”, Donna Haraway’s extensive critical evaluation of feminist ideology and human identity, came to inspire many academic examinations within fields such as sociology and evolutionary theory. A large amount of scholarly research has been completed on the application of cyborg theory: analyses have been composed on the subject of figures ranging from comic book super heroes and movie characters to the modern military. Through such applications of cyborg theory, much is revealed about the contemporary world’s view on the subject of human-machine hybrids – namely, that they are questionable in nature due to their dangerous abilities and possess greater aptitude for survival at the loss of their morality. Sources promoting ‘cyborgization’ as a form of secondary evolution indicate that this fear of ‘cyborgs’, or cybernetic organisms, stems from humanity’s stark suspicion toward technology and the danger that could be posed by a combination of a human’s intelligence and a machine’s efficiency. Western society’s conclusion on the subject of suicide bombers – figures best described as weaponized humans, committing potentially massive damage at a literal loss of their humanity in order to ensure efficiency – is very much akin to the portrayal given to cyborgs within popular media. When scholarly analyses of cyborgs as depicted within entertainment outlets – written works, films and televisions shows – are compared to the way that suicide bombers are viewed by Western sources, it becomes evident that there are very many similarities in their depictions. A deeper investigation into Haraway’s view of the cyborgs themselves, as well as supporting documents on the use of the theory in analyzing the depiction of cyborgs by both popular media and scholarly sources, reveals that there is much potential for the accurate application of cyborg theory to suicide bombers.
Constructing the Cyborg, One Feminist Science
Fiction Character At A Time: Haraway’s Manifesto
The core document of cyborg theory is, as mentioned, Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”; within it are descriptions of beings similar in nature to the commonly depicted suicide bomber. Haraway describes her cyborg – to her, an ideal form of life for humanity in comparison to the constantly multiplying factors which prevent any sense of unity – as popularly viewed as superior due to their advanced states, completely unavailable to humanity, as well as their deserving suspicious due to their lack of moral standing . The differences between cyborgs and humans stems mainly through their use of technology as a major component of their identity, allowing for an end to sectarian rivalries and a new unity formed around the use of technology. Cyborgs effectively “mock” traditional Western morality and humanity itself through this ability to transcend the bounds of the basic person; as a result they are considered “without spirit” in comparison to a real human and not in possession of true human characteristics .
In investigating the depth of the cyborg, Haraway applies her theory to several figures in feminist-oriented science fiction. Citing the works of Audre Lorde, feminist identity activist and writer, Haraway identifies the character “Sister Outsider” – a recurring personality in several of Lorde’s essays – as a potential cyborg. Transcendent from the difficulties of human behavior, Sister Outsider’s uniqueness is perceived by normal humans to be threatening to the social status quo and potentially harmful to the safety of their various communities . Haraway also cites Cherrie Moraga’s seminal take on La Malinche, the Nahua informant and mistress to infamous Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, as a cyborg due to her enigmatic position as an assistant in the conquering of her own indigenous people as executed in vernaculars titled by Haraway as “conqueror’s languages”, English and Spanish (within Moraga’s narrative) . Similar in both examples is the ambiguity of La Malinche and Sister Outsider by Haraway as well as the suspicion directed at both figures due to their positions of uniqueness.
In concluding her work, Haraway examines the roles played by machines and humans in the relationship between the two. The explicit, definite roles given to both categories have come to chafe upon those participating in the system of multi-group solidarity. Like the differences between many human groups, Haraway believes that the gap separating humans and machinery has begun to shrink. For the last several centuries, machines have been increasingly filling in the roles of humans in categories such as industrial work and military matters; at the same time, humanity has become increasingly mechanical in its behavior and its response to change . Within this framework and in support of this paper’s thesis, there is great potential for a human to act as an explosive weapon’s targeting system in place of a piece of technology due to the changing identity of humanity in relation to the role of machines. In the following passage, Haraway sums up her beliefs on the subject.
“It is not clear who makes and who is made in the relation between human and machine. It is not clear what is mind and what body in machines that resolve into coding practices. In so far as we know ourselves in both formal discourse (for example, biology) and in daily practice (for example, the homework economy in the integrated circuit), we find ourselves to be cyborgs, hybrids, mosaics, chimeras.”
“Hotties Can’t Be Terrorists”: Paradise Now and Its Reception
Haraway’s repeated expressions on the perceived ambiguity of the cyborg, and subsequently the fear aimed at a figure with such potential to interrupt the natural balance of things, is akin to the way in which suicide bombers are viewed by the Western media. The recent example of the film Paradise Now show succinctly that attempts to even vaguely humanize the efforts or identities of a suicide bomber – in this case, portraying the motives of a suicide bomber as challenging to the public view of such figures – have been met with stark hostility within the realm of public opinion. The Arabic-language film Paradise Now – released in 2005 by director Hany Abu-Assad – focuses on several days in the lives of Said and Khaled, Palestinian residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, who have been recruited for the purpose of suicide bombing against Israeli targets. The two characters are developed: they have a history of friendship and, as the movie progresses, poignant personal views on the subject of their mission. The movie ends ambiguously – in the true nature of a cyborg – with the viewers left to determine for themselves as to whether or not the actual act of suicide bombing ever took place.
The movie went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005; it did so, however, amidst major criticism against the humanization of the suicide bombers. Critics stated that the suicide bombers in the film were unrealistic and incorrectly humanized for the purpose of garnering an anti-Israeli sentiment. Israeli movie reviewer Irit Linor labeled the production a “Nazi film”, denouncing the movie for its depiction of non-traditional suicide bombers – they were physically attractive and humble, instead of calculating and misguided – and its role as potential anti-Israeli propaganda as a result of the depth given to the humanity of the suicide bombers . Linor’s review speaks of a stereotyped suicide bomber: faceless and already dehumanized not only by the nature of their task but also their lack of regard for their own humanity. New York Times staff member Stephen Holden regarded the film’s main theme as paranoia, citing the overt fear felt not only by the terrorist network and the Israeli state toward one another but also focusing on internal suspicion: the suicide bombing handlers panicked as a result of a lack of communication between their agents, and an Israeli operative assisted the suicide bombers in gaining access to their sites of detonation . The following passage by Holden characterizes the negative critical views given to Paradise Now.
“Given the explosive political climate in the Middle East, humanizing suicide bombers in a movie risks offending some viewers in the same way that humanizing Hitler does. Demons make more convenient villains than complicated people with their complicated motives. Especially after 9/11, it is easier for some in the United States to imagine a suicide bomber as a 21st-century Manchurian Candidate - a soulless, robotic shell of a person programmed to wreak destruction - than it is to picture a flesh-and-blood human being doing the damage.”
The critical reaction directed specifically at the humanization of suicide bombers in Paradise Now speaks volumes about the similarities between Abu-Assad’s Said and Khaled and Haraway’s cyborgs. The paranoia mentioned by Holden as exemplifying the atmosphere of the film, characterizing relations not only between the suicide bombers and the Israeli state but also between the suicide bombers themselves, is explicitly similar to the paranoia spoken of by Haraway as a major factor in the human perception toward the idea and eventual role of cyborgs in society. The challenge to the status quo presented by Haraway’s cyborgs is similar to the role filled by suicide bombers, and the attempts made by Abu-Assad in characterizing his suicide bombers in a way that transcended paranoid stereotypes was perceived to be morally volatile. The film’s ambiguous ending seems to be the only part of the movie approved of by critics: true to their nature, the Palestinian operative obviously completed their mission by completing a self-bombing and contributing to the accepted stereotype of the myopic suicide operative. While the unquestionable political nature of the film is at fault for a portion of the criticism leveled at Paradise Now – debates managed to break out even over the Golden Globes’ labeling of the film’s location of origin as “Palestine” – the director’s choice to depict suicide bombers as more human than Holden’s ‘mechanical killers’ contributed very much to the plentiful criticism directed at the film.
Of Iron Man and Martyrs: Alcoholic Mechanized Geniuses and Sympathetic Killing Machines
An ambiguous existence and a lack of morals as a result of technological superiority seem to be running themes in the many depictions of cyborgs within popular media. Mark Oehlert’s scholarly article “From Captain America to Wolverine: Cyborgs in Comic Books, Alternative Images of Cybernetic Heroes and Villains” elaborates upon the ways in which cyborgs are framed by the writers of comic books as the author groups all comic book cyborgs into one of four categories . The most poignant of these to the subject of suicide bombers would be “controller cyborgs” such as Wolverine and Iron Man: figures who are enhanced through surgical methods – Wolverine’s strengthened skeletal structure and adamantium claws – or through means that do not fundamentally change their biological structure, as seen in Iron Man’s utilization of metal suit that grants him superhuman capabilities while also sustaining his weakened heart . Oehlert’s controller cyborgs are the most similar of his examples to suicide bombers, as they do not modify their constitutive structures in order to excel through means of technology; instead, suicide bombers utilize “low-tech” cyborg mechanics in order to increase effectiveness.
In order to compensate for the cyborg’s ambiguous nature within comic books, they are brought to life not as unattainable beings but as emotive and humanized. The efficiency and abilities of a cyborg super hero in attaining goals is cited by Oehlert as a “double-edged sword” due to the systematic and assumedly inhuman way that cyborgs accomplish their missions; the struggles of many cyborg characters, most commonly between their moral human parts and the technological nature which has come to demonize them in the fearful eyes of the public, presents a problem of identity for cyborg super heroes. This viewpoint can certainly be applied to suicide bombers: the popularized simplistic view of a suicide bomber as little more than an ideologically-driven and commonly coerced individual prevents the possibility for suicide bombers to be considered fully human. In order to combat this general perception that cyborgs are morally aloof and obsessed with programmed directives, Oehlert states that cyborg super heroes have been brought down to an understandably human level through the institution of realistic storylines such as the ongoing difficulty of depressive alcoholism suffered by Iron Man and Shadowhawk’s eventual death by an AIDS-related illness . The personalization granted to Paradise Now’s Khaled and Said was enacted by the film’s creator to better elaborate upon the humanity and motives behind the bombers; this is similar to the actions put forth by comic books writers who attempted to establish a sense of humanity for their suspiciously regarded cyborg characters . The ambiguity of suicide bombers as a result of their detected lack of human qualities and heightened technological ability is equally shared by comic book cyborgs, a group to which cyborg theory has been thoroughly applied.
What Cavemen and Hamas Have In Common: Military Cyborgs
Cyborg theory has also been applied to the use of advanced technology in modifying human abilities and morality on the battlefield – a factor which would completely change the face of contemporary war. D.S. Halacy, Jr. ‘s study of cyborg theory, Evolution of the Superman, discusses this issue notably. Halacy states that one of the very first reasons that humans began to develop exosomatically – that is, beyond biological means through a use of tools and general technology – was in order to gain military superiority and ensure survival; in his words, “the caveman with a club was not particularly sophisticated unless we compare him with the unarmed caveman he attacked” . Later military developments including the formalization of technocentric battlefield figures such as the knight or cataphract – types of warriors whose effectiveness relied upon their use of technology such as heavy plate armor, long lances and advancing cavalry techniques – supports Halacy’s claim that cyborgization has placed an essential role in human development since its inception.
Only recently has true cyborgization – that is, the literal joining of human and machine to increase effectiveness as opposed to the otherwise simple utilization of advanced battlefield accoutrements – come to define human military development. Haley believes that great success has been seen in this advancement: the American Navy’s frogmen corps of World War II accomplished acts of lauded valor and achievement by using new technologies such as artificial lungs and water-safe plastic explosives in a way that would have been completely unthinkable only years beforehand . Due to these successes, military technology – as driven by government agencies, the largest proponents of military advancements in the world – has begun to incorporate distinctly cyborg-esque technologies into its bank of ideas. The United States Air Force, for example, has made ground in studying the legitimacy of assisting the assimilation of a human into the system as an integral part of the targeting mechanism for its aircraft . Haley suggests that the literal “wedding of living systems with artificial” for military means is most certainly an eventual goal due to the distinct advantages using such technology would bestow; it has already been used, to a lesser degree, in kamikaze planes and “Baka bombs” – vehicles piloted with the sole purpose of self-destruction in order to ensure efficiency .
By Halacy’s standard, the use of cyborg theory in analyzing military advancements directly supports the emergence of suicide bombing as a technology and a tactic. At its root, the suicide bomb is a complex weapons system which puts to use the abilities of a human targeting system in ensuring the most effective use of the armaments which that person possesses (in the case of a suicide bomber, an explosive device). Its emergence can be seen as the newest step in military technology, similar to Haley’s example of the Baka bomb, in that the weapon can be used to its most full extent as it is joined with a human. In attempting to explain the role of suicide bombing within modern warfare, Talal Asad cites political analyst Robert Pape’s belief that suicide bombers should be viewed as an integral part of the ever-changing face of contemporary war .
In order to counteract the superior technology of their opponents, the less prepared or technologically equipped combatants in a conflict improvise and work as effectively as possible with the equipment available. According to Diego Gambetta, editor of the Making Sense of Suicide Missions compilation, it is the “weaker side of a conflict” who utilizes suicide bombing as a means of necessary tactics . In order to succeed against a superior power, lesser forces utilize technology – becoming cyborgs – in order to exceed their own abilities and achieve their goals. This theory is supported by the following quote from Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin, the co-founder of Hamas – a Palestinian paramilitary faction which consistently utilizes suicide bombing against Israeli civilians and military targets.
“Once we have warplanes and missiles, then we can think of changing our means of legitimate self-defense. But right now, we can only tackle the fire with our bare hands and sacrifice ourselves.”
Upon the assassination of Yassin, United States ambassador John Negroponte commented upon the ideology of Hamas as depraved and without morals. He specifically noted the late Yassin as a preacher of hatred and inhumanity, citing his words on the subject of suicide bombing as glorifying the killing of civilians . This can be equated to Haraway’s comments on the resistance faced by cyborgs for their refusal to adhere to societal norms – in this case, the United States’ opinion on the use of suicide bombing against Israeli targets.
The general perception to such tactics is one of horror and undeniable inhumanity. To Asad, this Western view of suicide bombing has come as a result of the sanitization of warfare through the promotion of “morally superior” computerized methods of fighting . In utilizing suicide bombing tactics, Asad states, the participants of such attacks may face dehumanization and accusations of moral ambiguity through “their deliberate transgression of boundaries that separates the human from the inhuman” . The concept of suicide bombers emerging as a result of constantly advancing human-machine hybridization in military technology and the subsequent moral denouncement of these figures for their transcendence of human bounds fits succinctly into cyborg theory.
The growing role of suicide tactics and material as a means of effective improvisational technology can be explained through the efficiency offered through such methods of cyborgization. The use of ‘cyborg’ technologies, namely the joining of human and machine in forming – in this case – a weapon, is seen by its users as a boon through displays of its effectiveness. Stephen Hopgood’s analysis of the suicide tactics of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) states that the use of a suicide truck bombing against a Sri Lankan government compound caused damage on a scale that was not possible with other weapons available to the LTTE; the strike allowed for enemy government troops to be overwhelmed immediately in a victory that would not have been achieved if it were not for effectiveness of suicide truck bombing . This feat was only possible through the Tamil Tigers’ use of cyborgization – combining their literal technology with a human participant. Another example of suicide bombing’s effectiveness through cyborgization is the more infamous attack upon American locales on September 11th, 2001. According to Kalyvas and Sanchez-Cuenca, the 2001 attacks on World Trade Centers and the Pentagon would not have been as efficient as they were if it had not been for their use of suicide as a tactic; this can be seen through the failure of the attempted bombing of the World Trade Centers in 1993 by conventional means . The efficiency of suicide bombing is a result of the general technological inability to prevent it: the uncomplicated nature of suicide bombing technology allows for easy use by almost any subject, and its general undetectability assists in its maximum effectiveness in terms of placement. This leads to a general sense of paranoia toward suicide technology as a result of its morally tenebrous position within wartime and terror tactics. The following quote by Kalyvas and Sanchez-Cuenca summarizes the subject.
“A person wearing a bomb is far more dangerous and far more difficult to defend against than a timed device left to explode in the marketplace. This human weapons system can effect last-minute changes based on the ease of approach, the paucity or density of people, and the security measures in evidence.”
Conclusion, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and End The Paper
Through an analysis of the similarities shared between subjects deemed to be ‘cyborgs’ under Haraway’s theory and suicide bombers as a continuation of human military cyborgization, it is safe to say that cyborg theory can be applied to suicide theory and supported by the scholarly interpretations of its various roles in technology. If analyzed within the framework of the important role of public opinion toward cyborgs for their alternate identities, suicide bombers are regarded similarly: morally ambiguous and without the human standing to act properly, they are a threat to the status quo. The trend of cyborgization in terms of human military advancement shows equal amounts of similarity in that suicide bombers seem to be another step in the fabled direction of ultra-efficient and resourceful human-machine hybridization. Through an application of Haraway’s general cyborg theory to suicide bombers, it becomes quite evident that they are very much subject to the “Manifesto” and supportive cyborg-related academic documents.
Works Cited
1. Asad, Talal. On Suicide Bombing. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
2. Bloom, Mia. Dying to Kill: the Allure of Suicide Terror. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
3. Gambetta, Diego. “Can We Make Sense of Suicide Missions?” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 259-300. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
4. Halacy, Jr., D.S. Cyborg – Evolution of the Superman. New York/London: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965.
5. Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, 149-181. New York; Routledge, 1991.
6. Holden, Stephen. “Terrorists Facing their Moment of Truth.” The New York Times (October 2005). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/movies/28para.html?_r=1&ex=1175486400&en=12f6093d0860ee9c&ei=5070 (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
7. Hopgood, Stephen. “Tamil Tigers, 1987-2002.” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 43-76. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
8. Kalyvas, Stathis and Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca. “Killing Without Dying: The Absence of Suicide Missions.” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 209-232. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
9. Linor, Irit. “Anti-Semitism Now.” YNetNews.com (February 2006). http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3212503,00.html (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
10. Negroponte, John. “U.N. Must Condemn Hamas Terrorism as Well as Israeli Assassination, March 23, 2004”. United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy (March 2004). http://www.usembassy.it/viewer/article.asp?article=/file2004_03/alia/a4032408.htm (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
11. Oehlert, Mark. “From Captain America to Wolverine: Cyborgs in Comic Books, Alternative Images of Cybernetic Heroes and Villains,” in The Cyborg Handbook, edited by Chris Hables Gray, 219-232. New York/London: Routledge, 1995.
12. Shiloh, Scott. "Film Depicting Human Side of Suicide Bombers Wins Golden Globe.” Arutz Sheva (January 2006). http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/96814 (accessed April 23rd, 2009).
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