The Psycho-Pathology of Imperialism: McFated to McFailure

Kerim Friedman posted what I thought was a mild-mannered piece on “The Myth of Cultural Miscommunication,” on the Savage Minds blog. I do not think it should have provoked much fury. The post simply expressed certain doubts and questions, and provided a very interesting video that certainly does cast into doubt, to say the least, the extent to which U.S. occupation forces even want to hear “local knowledge” when killing the enemy is their top priority. But these wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have proven to be good business for a range of corporations and individuals, ranging from Halliburton to Blackwater to BAE Systems and Montgomery McFate, and those of her kind who wish to personally profit from taxpayer funded adventures in untenable occupations. They have a vested interest in the prolongation of these occupations, with the promise of $300,000 salaries.

Readers should have a look at the discussion that has taken place at Savage Minds, in part because one can directly witness the content, and noise level, of someone who chooses the name of “Dee” and is most likely Montgomery McFate herself. McFate, or at the very least her “mini me”, is apparently outraged at what has appeared on the Open Anthropology blog, and she cannot stop swelling with bitter disdain and fury. In that case, this blog has registered one of its intended effects, and I am grateful for the confirmation. More importantly, we witness more of the personality traits of what can be called the psycho-pathology of imperialism. McFate is otherwise not interesting as a person. But “McFate,” as a shorthand abbreviation for this psycho-pathology, points us to a valuable case study.

Finally, a number of empirical issues were raised in that discussion on Savage Minds, including: claims that the Human Terrain System provides open and unclassified reports — which it does not, and then Dee/McFate says she has personal inside information that these will be released soon, then backs away claiming she has no special inside relationship, not even remotely connected; claims that “glowing reports” have been published about the work of the HTS, which could also not be substantiated; and then Dee, now obviously McFate, claims to know Capt. Matthew Tompkins and Zenia Helbig, two of HTS’ “dissidents” (they actually support HTS, but have gone on the record with what they call gross malfeasance, incompetence, and various other travesties). McFate’s alter ego here claims to know something about this “pair” but will not say more. She seems to have reserved special rage for these two — quite interesting for a remotely connected, neutral, “devil’s advocate” who has no special inside knowledge.

Nice try McFate, and to be frank, I was prepared to credit you with more maturity and intelligence than what I saw today from you at Savage Minds. You betrayed your identity with the extreme oversensitivity you showed anyone and everyone who had any question about the program, taking things far too personally, and to too much of an extreme to simply be “a third party.” You blew your lid, and thereby blew your cover. Who vex, loss.

One has to wonder how McFate manages to evade the fact that she helped to create a research program that has set the conditions for two of her colleagues to be blown to pieces? As outrageous as I can be — usually deliberately — neither I nor any colleagues I know could ever claim to have set up a collaborative effort with colleagues that resulted in their deaths. That is quite a load to carry, but McFate manages, cackling and crowing along the way.

For those who want to read more about “glowing reports” of HTS, please see:

NEEWSWEEK’s “A Gun in One Hand, a Pen in the Other“

then see Montgomery McFate’s hasty rebuttal, which seems to confirm the main points of the criticisms and weaknesses unveiled by Newsweek,

and a fellow blogger’s dissection of her response. Newsweek is essentially correct then, apart from a few minor little errors.

For more on the case of Tompkins and Helbig, see Tompkin’s own blog, and then see their joint statement to the Project on Government Oversight, on malfeasance in the HTS, and finally see Zenia Helbig’s own revelations at the last conference of the American Anthropological Association.

With mounting evidence of a corrupt and incompetent program, not to mention Iraqi hatred for the American occupation and the wide range of human rights violations committed by a series of U.S. regimes against Iraq, one wonders what McFate could be crowing about so imperiously?