But Al Qaeda's image is suffering in Muslim countries too. Deborah Haynes reports of young Iraqis who want to look like American Soldiers:
Elbow or knee pads strapped deliberately to ankles and goggles worn back to front over helmets, some Iraqi soldiers have a unique sense of style. Efforts to mimic their American mentors or simply spruce up and re-enforce their regular army gear result in a variety of different outfits whenever the troops are on patrol. Sejad Mehdi, 21, said that he habitually fixes a pair of goggles to the back of his American helmet – bought at a Baghdad market for 50,000 Iraqi dinar (21 pounds) – because he saw US troops wearing them that way rather than because he uses the mask in his job.Richard Fernandez dubs this phenomenon the Ray-ban theory of History noting the similarity of Filipinos wearing MacArthur style sunglasses after World War II:
In the years after the Second World War the hot fashion item in war-ravaged Manila were Ray Ban aviator sunglasses. Not because people had any Hellcats to fly, but because everyone wanted to look like a "winner".While Richard notes "In short, winning against al-Qaeda has been largely achieved by winning", I believe an element of foreign respect is also atributable to the way the American military conduct themselves overall.
Interestingly, Richard, like Anne, see the left replacing their Che Guevara caps with the keffiyeh:
It is significant that some members of the Western elite want to wear a keffiyeh at precisely the time when young Muslim men in Baghdad are saving to buy Wiley-X'sThe common denominator underlying opposing style choices, however, appears to be America. One side wants to emulate it, the other wants to scorn it.
Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED May 31, 2000
