The NY Times published a sobering article last Sunday on the Iraqi word “sahel.” The word means “to utterly defeat and humiliate someone by dragging his corpse through the streets,” and the author speaks about the pursuit of “sahel” as the Iraqi’s curse. It is this brutal ideal which dominates the Iraqi cultural consciousness and drives a society currently spiraling into violent oblivion.
My question is whether this problem is really unique to Iraq. Certainly, the word itself is unique, but what the word signifies seems to be something that resides in the hearts of most people—even if they refuse to admit it. The Judeo-Christian tradition has its own word: “herem,” or what biblical scholars today call “the ban,” meaning “holy war” or “law of anathema.” This word from the Old Testament signifies the divine decree that a foreign people be “utterly destroyed” by the Israelites. Certainly, there is a difference between this divine command and the much more political nature of “sahel.” Nevertheless, Iraq is by no means the only country to feel a need for a “final, crushing victory.”
The point is not that there are other problematic words which have shaped the consciousnesses of various nations and cultures. My point is simply that we should not point out Iraqi bloodthirstiness without first acknowledging our own. The curse of victory is one which plagues us all, including the current American government. Just because one kind of victory looks more savage on the outside does not make our own pursuit of victory any more justifiable. I am not blaming Edward Wong for distracting us from the plank in our own eye, but I wish to offer a warning to those who might be so inclined.
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