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4play See other 4play Articles Title: Study: Iraqis May Experience Sadness When Friends, Relatives Die Sponsored by CHAPEL HILL, NC—A field study released Monday by the University of North Carolina School of Public Health suggests that Iraqi citizens experience sadness and a sense of loss when relatives, spouses, and even friends perish, emotions that have until recently been identified almost exclusively with Westerners. "We were struck by how an Iraqi reacts to the sight of the bloody or decapitated corpse of a family member in a not unlike an American, or at the very least a Canadian, would," said Dr. Jonathan Pryztal, chief author of the study. "In addition to the rage, bloodlust, and hatred we already know to dominate the Iraqi emotional spectrum, it appears that they may have some capacity, however limited, for sadness." Though Pryztal was quick to add that more detailed analysis is needed, he said the findings cast some doubt on long-held assumptions about human nature in that region. "Contrary to conventional wisdom, it seems that Iraqis do indeed experience at least minor feelings of grief when a best friend or a grandparent is ripped apart by a car bomb or shot execution style and later unearthed in a shallow mass grave," Prytzal said. "Last December's suicide-bomb killing of 71 Shiites in Baghdad, for example, produced unexpected reactions ranging from crumpled, sobbing despair to silent, dazed shock." Iraqis have often been observed weeping and wailing in apparent anguish, but the study offers evidence indicating this may not be exclusively an outward expression of anger or a desire for revenge. It also provocatively suggests that this grief can possess an American-like personal quality, and is not simply a tribal lamentation ritual. An Iraqi mother expressing American-like grief at the loss of her son. Said Pryztal: "When trying to understand the psychology of the Iraqi citizenry after four years of war, think of a small American town roiled by the death of a well-known high school football player." According to Pryztal, the intensity of the grief does not diminish if the mourner experiences multiple bereavements over time. "If a woman has already lost one child, the subsequent killings of other children will evoke similar responses," he said. "In the majority of cases we studied, it appeared as though those who lost multiple kids never actually got used to it." Though Pryztal expects the results of the study may be of some interest to students of Arab psychology, he did concede that the data may not be entirely accurate because it was gathered directly from Iraqis themselves. "Almost all the Iraqis we interviewed said the war had ruined their lives because of the incalculable loss of friends and family," Pryztal said. "But to be totally honest, these types of studies can be skewed rather easily by participant exaggeration." Psychologists and anthropologists have thus far largely discounted the study, claiming it has the same bias as a 1971 Stanford University study that concluded that many Vietnamese showed signs of psychological trauma from nearly a quarter century of continuous war in southeast Asia. "We are, in truth, still a long way from determining if Iraqis are exhibiting actual, U.S.-grade sadness," Mayo Clinic neuropsychologist Norman Blum said. "At present, we see no reason for the popular press to report on Iraqi emotions as if they are real." Pryztal said that his research group would next examine whether children in Sudan prefer playing with toys or serving as guerrilla fighters and killing innocent civilians.
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#1. To: kiki, all (#0)
All satire aside - For the last several years as we have watched the thousands of ordinary Iraqi citizens get killed (in the most brutal ways), I have wondered just how much larger the ratio of bad Iraqis there are to the number of good Iraqis. That's not to mention the multiple thousands that are seriously injured that will need enormous health care for the rest of their lives. I think the world would have been better if George Bush had never been born.
This reminds me of what I routinely shout at the radio or TV whenever I hear our "noble savages" of the U.S. military talk about their latest patrols and describe the "bad guys" they feel are lurking in the shadows (often these turn out to be innocent civilians, which is only discovered after they've been blasted into pink mist; then oftentimes the U.S. goons plant an AK on them and declare them "insurgents"). What I shout at the radio or TV is, "YOU are the 'bad guys.'" From Day One in March 2003 when this started, the U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines along with the Blackwater types are analogous to the Nazi storm troopers of the 1930s and '40s. They can never admit it to themselves, but I don't have to pretend there is anything "good" about what they have been ordered to do. Another Freudian slip has occurred, BTW. The "surge" in Baghdad is called "Operation Impose Law" (OIL)".
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