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| Clip Story: Gulf War: Al Amiriya shelter after bomb attack 13.2.1991 IRAQ: Baghdad: Al Amiriya Shelter: Shelter with smoke pouring out. Hole in reinforced concrete of bunker where bomb penetrated. Body brought out in blanket, part of charred remains seen. Wailing women and distraught, grieving men. Khalid Abdel Munaam Rashid (Mayor of Baghdad) interview refusing to comment. Victims' bodies laid out on ground. Iraqi man crying. Hospital staff examining corpses covered in blankets. |
Barrett Watten's Bad History: A Counter-Epic of the Gulf War
Philip Metres
John Carroll University
© 2003 Philip Metres. All rights reserved. Because the war was not simply the event of war, but the years of cultural and military preparation for the war, what better place to begin than with children's toys? Section IV, called "Museum of War," meditates on how the constant preparation for war requires young warriors to be prepared and leads to the inevitable sacrifice of children. This "Museum of War" does not exist in actuality, but rather is a virtual museum of Watten's imagining, one which perhaps cohabits the literal Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London. Taking his son Asa to the Museum of Childhood, Watten describes an artist's diorama where "each display is designed to be the perfect miniature of a moment of loss" (17). The diorama described both resembles a child's toy and invokes the bombing of the Amiriyah shelter during the Gulf War, where "at least 300 children and parents were incinerated in a structure we knew had been built for civilians; now they must reelect the entire PTA!" (19). The absurdity of the non sequitor "PTA" brings us to the insurmountable gap between our experience of raising children and the horror of the Amiriyah bombing. The imagined diorama makes us wonder whether representations of war are always already domesticated by our limited vision of what war is.
Philip Metres
John Carroll University
© 2003 Philip Metres. All rights reserved. Because the war was not simply the event of war, but the years of cultural and military preparation for the war, what better place to begin than with children's toys? Section IV, called "Museum of War," meditates on how the constant preparation for war requires young warriors to be prepared and leads to the inevitable sacrifice of children. This "Museum of War" does not exist in actuality, but rather is a virtual museum of Watten's imagining, one which perhaps cohabits the literal Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London. Taking his son Asa to the Museum of Childhood, Watten describes an artist's diorama where "each display is designed to be the perfect miniature of a moment of loss" (17). The diorama described both resembles a child's toy and invokes the bombing of the Amiriyah shelter during the Gulf War, where "at least 300 children and parents were incinerated in a structure we knew had been built for civilians; now they must reelect the entire PTA!" (19). The absurdity of the non sequitor "PTA" brings us to the insurmountable gap between our experience of raising children and the horror of the Amiriyah bombing. The imagined diorama makes us wonder whether representations of war are always already domesticated by our limited vision of what war is.
19. An equally straightforward question--when did the Gulf War end?--also yields three different answers: 1) 8 June 1991: "Victory parade in Washington"; 2) 6 January 1992: "An ABC 20/20 story airs on the deliberate U.S. public relations campaign regarding the false reports on Iraqi soldiers and incubator babies" (321); and 3) 15 August 1992: "UN Security Council votes to allow Iraq six months to sell limited amount of oil to finance civilian needs" (374). Oddly, none of these endings corresponds to the official 28 February 1991 ceasefire; the ensuing rebellions in Iraq by Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims in March does not even appear on the official chronology, even though some of the bloodiest fighting took place during this period. Finally, the policy of economic sanctions against Iraq and bombing sorties against infrastructure might also qualify as a continuation of the war, even though official hostilities ended in 1991. The 2003 war, "Operation Iraqi Freedom," suggests yet another "end point," itself perhaps only a point on a much longer vector.
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