Anthropologists debate ethics of aiding troops

[unhappycamper]

Anthropologists debate ethics of aiding troops
By Dan Vergano and Elizabeth Weise - USA Today
Posted : Monday Dec 8, 2008 22:14:49 EST

SAN FRANCISCO — The military for years has enlisted anthropologists, depending on their expertise to write up analyses of distant places and cultures.

But debate is growing among those scientists over whether it is appropriate for them to work alongside soldiers in combat or to contribute to the growing field of counterterrorism research.

At the just-concluded American Anthropological Association meeting here, the question of whether anthropologists should take part in military operations took the stage, though not for the first time. In 2007, the AAA’s executive board expressed “disapproval” of anthropologists’ work in Afghanistan and Iraq, arguing that they helped in “identifying and selecting specific populations as targets of U.S. military operations.”

The debate is more than academic. Two social scientists with the U.S. Army Human Terrain System were killed in bombings this year in Afghanistan and Iraq.

HTS researchers are essentially the Army’s polling force, surveying local sentiments to, among other things, increase the security of the area and facilitate aid and rebuilding efforts and to ensure those efforts are culturally sensitive, according to Training and Doctrine Command, which runs the program.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/gns_anthropoligists_military_120808/%2e