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Identities Under Construction: Iraq War, Life Writing and American National Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of American Culture and Literature IDENTITIES UNDER CONSTRUCTION: IRAQ WAR, LIFE WRITING AND AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY Merve Özman Kaya Ph. D. Dissertation Ankara, 2015 IDENTITIES UNDER CONSTRUCTION: IRAQ WAR, LIFE WRITING AND AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY Merve Özman Kaya Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of American Culture and Literature Ph. D. Dissertation Ankara, 2015 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible except for the contributions of many hearts and minds over the years. First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bilge Mutluay Çetintaş for her invaluable guidance and understanding at all times. I am also largely indebted to Prof. Dr. Belgin Elbir, Prof. Dr. Meldan Tanrısal, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özlem Uzundemir, and Assist. Prof. Dr. Barış Gümüşbaş for their critical insights in completing this project. Next, I would like to acknowledge the support of each and every member of the Department of American Culture and Literature for providing me with the necessary working conditions for writing this dissertation which I greatly appreciate. Last but not the least, I’d like to thank my beautiful little family, my loving husband, and my precious friends from the bottom of my heart for always being there for me whenever I needed their support. iv ÖZET Özman Kaya, Merve. Yapım Aşamasında Kimlik: Irak Savaşı, Yaşam Yazını ve Amerikan Milli Kimliği, Doktora Tezi, Ankara, 2015. Yaşam anlatıları, özellikle savaş yazını örnekleri, ulusların kültürel tarihinin birer parçasıdır. Bu anlatılar milli söylemi ve bu söylemin öngördüğü milli kimlik anlayışını canlandırma veya gözden düşürme potansiyeline sahiptir. 2003-2011 yıllarında Amerika-Irak Savaşı’nda cephede görev alan Amerikalılar savaş anılarında özgün bir kimlik oluşturma ve kendilerine atfedilen basmakalıp kimlikleri savuşturma çabasındadır. Bu çaba, politikacıların savaş söyleminin kimlik üzerine kurulmasından, diğer bir deyişle, savaşın başında George W. Bush tarafından dile getirilen “Ya bizimlesiniz, ya bize karşısınız!” mantığının politikacılar ve ordu tarafından benimsenmesinden kaynaklanmaktadır. Bireyin sosyal ihtiyaçlarının yanı sıra, onların gurur ve utanç gibi duygularını da dikkate almak suretiyle davranışlarını inceleyen “Sembolik Etkileşimcilik” yaklaşımı yaşam yazınında milli kimlik olgusunu incelemek için uygundur. Bu çalışmada, sembolik etkileşimcilik yaklaşımından faydalanılarak, cephede görev almış yetmiş dokuz Amerikalının savaş anlatılarında Irak Savaşı’yla ilişkili olarak gelişen ve değişen bireysel ve milli kimlik oluşturma süreçleri incelenmektedir. Çalışmanın konusu olan yazarlar anlatılarında Bush ve Obama yönetimlerinin savaş söylemi ideolojisini barındıran Amerikan milli kimliğine tepkileriyle dikkat çekmektedirler. Politikacılar bireylere bu kimliği atfederek onları ideolojilerinin birer nesnesi haline getirirler. Yazarların savaş öncesindeki, süresindeki ve sonrasındaki milli ve bireysel kimlik tanımlarında gözlemlenen değişim ve savaş sonrası yaşamlarında benimsedikleri kimlikler onların Amerikan milli ve askeri kimliğine olan bağlılıklarındaki azalmayı göstermektedir. İdeolojinin varoluşu ideolojiyle ilişkilendirilen bireylerin varoluşuna bağlıdır. Yazarların savaşa ve ideal/mitik Amerikalı olarak çağırılmaya tepki olarak ideolojik kimlik kavramını reddetmeleri ve alternatif kimlikler benimsemeleri onları bu ideolojik seslenmenin nesnesi olmaktan çıkarmaktadır. Ulusları bir arada tutan unsurlardan biri nesnelere biçilen ortak anlamlar olduğuna göre, söz konusu yazarların v Amerikan milli kimliğini sorgulamaları yöneticileri dış politikalarını gözden geçirmeye sevk eder. Anahtar Sözcükler Irak Savaşı, yaşam yazını, savaş anlatıları, Amerikan kimliği, ideolojik seslenme/çağırma, sembolik etkileşimcilik. vi ABSTRACT Özman Kaya, Merve. Identities Under Construction: Iraq War, Life Writing and American National Identity, Doktora Tezi, Ankara, 2015. Life narratives, especially war narratives, are part of a nation’s cultural history. These works have the potential to reinvigorate or outdate national narratives and the national identity promoted in them. Iraq War (2003-2011) narratives of American service members are intensely preoccupied with constructing identities for their authors and dismissing the ones attributed to them. This preoccupation stems from George W. Bush’s identity-based war rhetoric which is based on “You are either with us or against us” mentality and internalized by the politicians and the military of the time. The humanistic sociological approach of symbolic interactionism, which attaches importance not only to individuals’ social needs but also to their emotions such as pride and shame in analyzing their behaviors is useful in investigating the construction of national identity in the works of life writing. Using symbolic interactionism, this study analyzes the processes of the individual and the national identity formation in relation to the Iraq War. The war narratives of seventy-nine American service members display reactions to the identities attributed to them through the interpellations of the Bush and Obama administrations. Such interpellation harbored the ideologies these administrations needed to fulfill their foreign policy decisions concerning the Iraq War. The so-called free Americans are subjectified to these ideologies and attributed an ideal/mythic identity. An evaluation of service member identities coined before, during and after the war; service members’ definitions of the American national identity; and the identities they prefer to stick to in their post-war lives point to a visible regression in the popularity of national and military identities. Authors’ critical attitudes towards their interpellated identities terminate their subjection to such interpellation. If the existence of ideology depends on the existence of its subjects; if the identity the authors reject is the ideological identity that helps the politicians to fulfill their Iraq War policy; and if what keep nations together are collective interpretations; then the authors, who reject vii unwanted identities and offer alternative definitions for the self and the nation, have the political power to influence the American foreign policy. Keywords Iraq War, life writing, war narratives, American national identity, interpellation, symbolic interactionism. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS KABUL VE ONAY……………………………………………………………………...i BİLDİRİM ………….…………………………...……………………………………..ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…….…………………………………………………..…iii ÖZET…………………………………………………………………………………...iv ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………vi TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………...…..viii LIST OF FIGURES ………………………….……………..…………………………xi INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………...1 THE IRAQ WAR (2003-2011) ……………………………………….……......3 LIFE WRITING AND IDENTITY…………………………......................... 10 AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY………………………….….………..16 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM ………………………………………….24 CHAPTER 1: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE LIFE NARRATIVES OF AMERICAN POLITICIANS ………………..……………...…..………...….…...... 35 1.1. CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE UNITED STATES ……………………………………………………………………….36 1.2. FOREIGN POLICY OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION…………..41 1.3. FOREIGN POLICY OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.………43 1.4. WORKS OF LIFE WRITING BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION….....................................................................................46 1.4.1. Defining the Narrating “I” ……………….………………...….49 1.4.2. Defining the American ………………………………..…….….50 1.5. CLOSE READING: GEORGE W. BUSH’S DECISION POINTS …...58 1.6. WORKS OF LIFE WRITING BY THE MEMBERS OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION………………………………………..………...............70 ix 1.6.1. Defining the Narrating “I” …………….………..……….….…71 1.6.2. Defining the American ……………..………………………..…72 CHAPTER 2: PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR …….………………………………………......79 2.1. PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY BEFORE THE WAR……..……………………………………………………………..80 2.1.1. The American Soldier and the Iraq War ………...…………...80 2.1.2. Earlier Self-definitions ……..……………………..…………....82 2.1.3. Reasons for Joining the Service ……………….……………....84 2.1.4. The Boot Camp Experience ……………………….…………..92 2.2. CLOSE READING: RYAN SMITHSON’S GHOSTS OF WAR….....97 2.3. PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AFTER THE WAR…………………………………………………………………..104 2. 4. CLOSE READING: JESSICA GOODELL’S SHADE IT BLACK..120 CHAPTER 3: PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY DURING THE WAR ……………………………………………………………..…130 3.1. PERCEPTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBER IDENTITY IN THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR…………………...…134 3.2. PERCEPTIONS OF IRAQI IDENTITY…………..……...…………138 3.3. FACTORS COMPLICATING THE DEFINITIONS OF INDIVIDUAL IDENTITIES.……………………………………………...143 3.3.1. “Compassionate Conservatism” ……………………..………143 3.3.2. American Military Culture ………………………………..…146 3.3.3. Diminished Human Agency ……………………………...…..148 3.3.4. Tension between Service Members and American Civilians.151 3.4. EMERGING SELF-DEFINITIONS DURING THE WAR………...153 3.4.1. Self-Definitions Based on A Failure of Expectations ……….153 3.4.2. Self-Definitions Based on the Disillusionment with the War.155 x 3.4.3. “Transformed” Identities ………………………………….....159 3.4.3.1. Personal Transformations………………..........………159 3.4.3.2. Professional Transformations…………...............…….160 3.4.3.3. Gender Transformations…………………………...….164 3.5. CRITICAL APPROACHES TO AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY…………………………………………………………………...166
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