The Language Of Empire

by Rajiva, Lila

• ISBN13: 9781583671191
• ISBN10: 1583671196
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-30
• Publisher: Monthly Review Pr

Summary

Under the rule of Saddam Hussein, the prison of Abu Ghraib (the Father of the Raven) was a place of ill omen, notorious for horrific suffering and torture and mass executions. After the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military made Abu Ghraib one of the major detention centers for Iraqis suspected of sympathizing with the resistance. The revelations since April 2004 of systematic torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib have not easily been assimilated into the mythology of the U.S. "war on terror."The Language of Empirefocuses on the response to these revelations in the U.S. media, in congress, and in the larger context of U.S. global politics and ideology. Its focus on the media is a prelude to showing how the language of multiculturalism, humanitarianism, and even feminism have been hijacked in the cause of an illegal and brutal imperialist war.The media have colluded with the Bush administration in manipulating images of the U.S. occupation of Iraq in such a way as to present it as a clash between civilization and barbarism, and in selectively using legal and procedural issues to distract from the basic criminality of the invasion itself. The circuitous logic through which U.S. imperialism presents itself as a defender of legality and democracy is exposed for all to see in this important and timely work.

Table of Contents

Prologue	9	(162)
1. Graphic Evidence I: Photographs	11	(10)
Who Knew What and When	16	(2)
The Scandal Widens	18	(3)
2. Framing a Narrative I: Politics as the Personal	21	(14)
The View from the Right	21	(8)
The Forensic Drama	29	(2)
The Geneva Conventions	31	(1)
The Pulp Drama	32	(3)
3. Framing a Narrative II: Politics as Law	35	(20)
The Senate Armed Services Committee Hearings, May 7	35	(7)
The Senate Armed Services Committee Hearings, May 11	42	(13)
4. Graphic. Evidence II: Video	55	(10)
Invitation to a Beheading	60	(5)
5. Context I: The Violence of Virtue	65	(14)
Media Reaction	65	(5)
Fallujah and Abu Ghraib	70	(7)
The Silent War	77	(2)
6. Context II Theater of pain	79	(24)
Erasing a Crime	79	(5)
Constructing a Crime	84	(2)
Reframing the Context	86	(3)
The Language of Normalization	89	(4)
The Language of Monstrosity	93	(2)
Terror as Communication	95	(2)
Terror as Pornography	97	(6)
7. Ideology I: Prometheus	103	(28)
Pagan Inflections	103	(1)
Totality and Secrecy	104	(4)
Invisibility	108	(8)
Indivisibility	116	(6)
Civilizational War	122	(4)
Dionysus	126	(5)
8. Context III: Virtual Violence	131
Rumors of Rape	133	(7)
Violent Pornography	140	(5)
The Propaganda of Gender	145
9. The Torture Trompe L'Oeil	119	(52)
10. Ideology II: The Tower of Babel	171	(20)
Israel First	173	(1)
Jewish Zionism	174	(2)
American Exceptionalism	176	(4)
The Globalists' War	180	(11)
Notes	191	(26)
Index	217