alternatehistory.com

Here is a very interesting post I’ve read on a different forum:

https://forums.spacebattles.com/thr...alent-in-the-west.328303/page-3#post-16530538
Well, a big part of effective (as in, "this actually works," not saying it is a good idea) colonialism is the destruction of local culture by the rapid, overwhelming imposition of an outside culture and the resulting melange leading to a hybrid culture where the two actually meet. I'm no anthropologist, so let me just lay out an example:

Picture an area, let's call it Lowkal, population of around a hundred thousand or so, with a few fertile argricultural zones bordering streams/canals and a local fishing fleet for their primary economic activity. You have a basic patriarchal structure in place: men farm or fish, women do housework and child-rearing, the overall culture is conservative and centered around extended family/clan ties. Established elder men make the rules, determining life decisions for those under them, literal patriarchy, etc. This works for them and they see no reason to change in favor of some ephemeral "other way" that they've never seen before.

However, the Lowkals are unhappy with the government for reasons (the specifics are unimportant) and a Lowkal insurgency rises up, which in turns draws foreign military forces to secure the area. There is a period of constant fighting, destruction of many Lowkal farms and the area's fishing fleet, several hundred casualties on the Lowkal side, with a side order of maybe a few thousand displaced people. Where do those people go?

Obviously the insurgents cannot provide for displaced Lowkals, so the displaced Lowkals turn to the military for protection in a practical sense; they abandon their traditional farming/fishing (much of which was destroyed anyway) and pitch tents near the newly established camps, with their primary economic activity centered around providing services to the military forces in exchange for cash. This is where culture breaks down. Whereas before the Lowkal women's work wasn't valued as a source of income, the foreign soldiers are more than happy to exchange excess material for laundry, cleaning, cooking, tailoring, sexual, etc. services and now it is the primary income of Lowkal households around the camps. In such an environment, the previous patriarchal-agricultural structure of their household breaks down. Granted, there are only maybe a few hundred or few thousand of said households around the camps, what have you, but this is huge, this is massive! This is the "other way" people have been talking about. WOMEN MAKING MAD DOSH BY WORKING FOR OTHER MEN?? WHAT IS THIS MANNER OF WITCHCRAFT?! MUST BE SLUTS! TRYING TO SLUT UP ALL OUR WOMEN AND TAKE OVER FROM INSIDE THE WOMB!

The original culture (and all cultures do this btw, it isn't any more "backwards" than reflexively kicking your leg when tapped on the knee) recoils in horror and hardens itself (still consisting of a majority of the Lowkals, by far) against the corrupting outside influence, thereby placing the Lowkal households around the camps into their own category, outside of the "pure" culture. On one hand, these Lowkals aren't exactly thrilled to be basically living off foreign generosity. But on the other hand, they are already outcasts, the foreigners are accepting and, for young women, at least, a few of the foreign men are young, handsome, charming and have surprisingly big... incomes.

Culture in this particular circumstance (camp Lowkals) changes rapidly. The grandfather or clan head can no longer exert control over these families as having the whip of economic and social isolation taken from his hand, he has no longer has effective "weapons" to keep people in line. Instead, you see a rise of a more egalitarian, ad-hoc decision-making structure. Likely the flashpoint is a daughter who's either prostituting to or dating/engaged to a foreign soldier; he buckles down behind his former prerogative to arrange marriages, his wife or one of his daughters counter with the lack of available, quality Lowkal men. He can huff, he can puff, but at the end of the day, his wife/daughters are hauling in at least as much (and very probably more) money than him and his sons (who probably have a stake in keeping this system running, because they want to take over one day) in keeping the family afloat. Other flashpoints emerge: a son likes playing soldier with the foreigners and spends all his day with them instead of sitting at his father's foot hearing tales of Lowkal heroes; a brother has an opportunity to return to his old farm, no question asked and breaks off with his nuclear family away from the rest; his wife gains a voice as the camp ombudsman, usurping the previous order that held women unfit to judge serious matters, etc.

Meanwhile, the farm/fish Lowkal culture is stratifying, defining itself in ever more harsh terms opposed to the camp Lowkals... but insofar as there is still regular contact, they see some of the camp Lowkals doing well. Some of the girls who've married foreigners are walking through the village market beautifully attired, with new babies and flush with cash. Some farm/fish Lowkal women talk to them asking about their husband and how they live, "No, he's not a monster who beats me all day and rapes me all night, he's actually very nice, and look at all the nice things he buys for me! And the camp isn't that bad, our house is sturdy and has a large kitchen."

Other women shun them, "Slut. Sell-out. Whore. Wastrel."

But the "damage" is done, unless the farm/fish Lowkal culture can insulate itself from the camp Lowkals. The camp Lowkals aren't numerous; they just need to be visible and provide an alternative lifestyle in the eyes of others. Camp Lowkal women are used to having serious veto power and once people have power, they are naturally loathe to abdicate it. Sons know that if they disobey their father, fleeing to find the nearest foreign army is an option. And, most importantly, the previous leaders intuitively know this as well, ceding cultural touchstones in interest of re-integration and hoping to salvage something out of the whole mess. As the conflict tamps down (and no conflict can last at full tilt forever) the camps are removed and Lowkals around them re-integrated into wider Lowkal culture. If the farm/fish Lowkals can insulate themselves, this probably doesn't work out, but in most cases a population of only 100,000 simply cannot shrug off even 2,000 - 3,000 people making their own way. There are always economic, social, etc. reasons to bring people back into the fold, even if it means giving other things up.

That is way too many fucking words.

Anyway, the US armed forces deliberately took steps to limit this sort of thing from cropping up in Iraq and Afghanistan -- largely by insulating our troops from locals outside of very carefully controlled and monitored interactions. Nobody in Iraq was keeping their girlfriend Fatima in their CHU and most (none?) COPs weren't letting random Iraqi women No. 33 through No. 39 through their gates daily to sweep out the living areas and wash clothes. We did have some Iraqi helpers, but for the most part they were foreign contractors brought in explicitly to not have thousands of locals running around, doing all the things parents and wives do back in the States.
So what if, in parallel to G.W.’s desire to turn Iraq into the Germany of the Middle East, the US military actively encourage its soldiers to become part of the local Iraqi culture & society following the 2003 invasion of Iraq?

For example, say grants are given to US soldiers that marry local Iraqi women/men and settle down in the country. After, say, 15 years of living in Iraq the soldier’s family is given dual Iraqi-US citizenship. Separate grants could also be set aside for US soldiers wishing to open a business in Iraq (this would be justified as trying to encourage the rebuilding of the Iraqi economy post-war).

How would Iraq look like today in this case? How would “American Iraqis” be viewed? Will it impact the Arab culture or would that need more time?

And assuming that something like ISIS still arises, how would this impact America’s public view of the M.E. conflict knowing there are former US soldiers who put down roots and got families in Iraq that are now being threatened by the likes of al-Bagdadi?
Top