Kelly wrote:
"You just don't go knocking on the Taliban's door and say, "We've come to arrest ObL Inc. Here are our papers." Lots of luck. did you even
consider the anthropological interpretation of what the Taliban think they are doing when they protect ObL? Inc.? Different normative code, for these guys."
Well, no one went knocking on their door with the papers - so this is speculation. In fact, the west explicitly said they were not going to go knock on their door with the papers, they said: "there will be no negotiations."
How does that conform to idealised western self-perceived "normative codes" ? - not very well, although it unfortunately conforms nearly perfectly with past practice in such matters.
How about the "normative code" of the Taliban? What evidence do we have that they were unwilling to hand over bin Laden, given the proper "papers."? They are fundamentalist - but they are not so crazy as risk vaporization over some guy, even a symbolically important guy.
At a minimum, the west should have publically handed over the evidence, if such exists, and called the Taliban's "bluff." That is the "arrogance" perceived in the middle east: that America need not justify itself in pursuing such actions.
And how about your own "normative code", Kelly - how have you come to think bin Laden is the key figure here. How will getting him make any difference at all? As far as I know, there is not much evidence that he really did push all the buttons behind this; certainly he is a figurehead. But killing figureheads is the last thing the US needs to do to ensure its own safety. Pursuing this war on the grounds stated is at least incompetent.
TC Oppermann Dept. Anthropology The University of Sydney
PS: "normative codes' is a terribly unfortunate choice of words, as it is actually the language of imperialism: typically, indirect rule gurus like Lord Luggard would rabbit on about respecting "normative codes" and tolerating all manner of despotism through which, of course, their own power was being exercised. Cultural relativism was for a long time imperial doctrine. Let's not revive it as such.