Las Metáforas de una Guerra Perpetua: Estudios sobre Pragmática del Discurso en el Conflicto Armado Colombiano by Fernando Estrada Gallego. Fondo Editorial Universidad EAFIT (http://www.eafit.edu.co/fondoEditorial), Carrera 49, no. 7, Sur-50, Medellín, Colombia, 2004, 173 pages, $10.00.
Las Metáforas de una Guerra Perpetua argues that opposing sides in Colombia’s chronic guerrilla war articulate their political views through metaphor-based discourses that can be interpreted through systematic study. The author, Dr. Fernando Estrada Gallego, director of the Regional Studies Center at the Industrial University of Santander, Colombia, has published other works about the theoretical relationships among philosophy, language, and rationality. In this book, he applies complex philosophical concepts from Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, Carl von Clausewitz, Michael Walzer, and many others to examine how discourses influence listeners and distort the public’s perception of events. His analysis is convoluted and narrowly confined to Colombia, but serious students of information operations may find broader applications for his thoughts.
The author carefully dissects public statements made by guerrillas of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and right-wing paramilitary groups to show how those organizations use metaphors to obscure and justify their violent actions. For example, the FARC euphemistically refers to indiscriminate mass kidnappings as “miraculous catches,” a metaphor derived from the biblical verse “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (pp. 87–90). Members of the FARC thereby cast themselves not as kidnappers but as revolutionaries conducting religiously inspired acts. Colombian paramilitary groups use similar rhetorical devices. Dr. Estrada contends that these metaphors treacherously mask crimes by intellectually eroding the public’s ability to use normal language to understand events. As he puts it, “The war’s rhetoric has generated an unconscious reversal of the values we Colombians attribute to our shared daily reality, and this reversal corresponds primarily to changes in words and their meanings” (p. 123). His focus on the power of words reminds one of George Orwell’s classic book 1984, in which government deprives people of the vocabulary they need to articulate ideas that might challenge its absolute authority.
Readers unfamiliar with philosophy and rhetoric may find Las Metáforas de una Guerra Perpetua hard to grasp. They might also wonder whether the author’s analytical method implicitly assumes that political discourses and metaphors really are subject to rational examination. Passions certainly run high during guerrilla wars, but if one accepts the Clausewitzian notion that war is the continuation of politics by other means, then political discourses should reflect deliberate strategies calculated to influence public opinion.
Employing metaphors during counterinsurgency is challenging yet important. This book offers useful insights, but some of its underlying assumptions seem excessively gloomy. Dr. Estrada paints a bleak picture of Colombian social and political conditions, lamenting how that country has “a deprived social culture with the world’s highest unemployment rates, highest corruption rates, and most discouraging indices of social cooperation” (p. 31). One can hardly believe that Colombia is in such dire straits. The author also bewails the country’s heterogeneous political and social systems in terms that might almost apply to the United States. Colombia certainly faces serious problems yet has managed to sustain democratic governance despite decades of guerrilla war—a remarkable achievement. Writing during Pres. Álvaro Uribe’s first term, Dr. Estrada sounds a skeptical note about how the president would address Colombia’s problems. President Uribe’s impressive reelection in 2006 shows that he is a potent agent of national progress. Indeed, the author acknowledges that despite Colombia’s problems, “we have a country filled with hope, challenges to barbarism, and enterprising spirit, with people capable of conceiving projects for a new order of communal living” (p. 37).
Even if his assumptions are too pessimistic for Colombia, Dr. Estrada’s ideas have wider applicability than he claims. For example, like Colombian armed groups, al-Qaeda terrorists often try to legitimize barbarous acts by resorting to religious metaphors. The author’s policy recommendations may also have international validity because if the Colombians can make democracy work, they can serve as a model for others. To counteract social and political fragmentation and lessen the attraction of armed groups, he calls for more integration of minorities into Colombian politics. He also advocates governmental decentralization to empower local authorities to address local grievances. These prescriptions could apply as well in Iraq and other countries seeking to unify disparate groups; however, one should use prudence in doing so because weak central-governmental authority characterizes failed states like Somalia and Afghanistan. Even in democratic countries faced with severe political disruptions, the ship of state needs a firm hand on the tiller.
Las Metáforas de una Guerra Perpetua, a theoretical treatise about what the
US military calls information operations or strategic communications, holds
particular interest because our experience in the global war on terror shows the
importance of public attitudes. The book offers a conceptual lens for
interpreting information campaigns in Colombia, but its basic ideas apply to
information operations in general. Too abstract for the hands-on practitioner,
it may nevertheless suit advanced theorists and strategists. Dr. Estrada
provides just the sort of insights the Air Force needs as it embraces cyberspace
operations.
Lt Col Paul D. Berg, USAF
Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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