عنوان مقاله English
نویسنده English
Nearly four decades have passed since the chemical bombardment of Sardasht on June 28, 1987, a catastrophic event in which the Ba'athist regime of Iraq targeted civilians with mustard gas. While this tragedy remains a deep wound in the security and psychological ecosystem of the Middle East, the dominant discourse surrounding it has largely remained stagnant. Traditional narratives in media and politics have focused primarily on the "war on signs"—condemning individual dictators like Saddam Hussein and proving the victimhood of the casualties. However, the persistence of violence in the region, from Halabja to Gaza, suggests that these traditional paradigms are insufficient for establishing lasting peace.
This research posits that current approaches rely on what Charles Eisenstein terms the "Myth of Redemptive Violence"—the belief that eliminating a specific source of evil (the "bad guys") will restore stability. This study argues that such a reductionist view fails to address the structural roots of war found in the global political economy and the "Story of Separation." The primary objective of this research is to propose a novel model of "Peace Journalism" that transcends the established binaries of "victim/executioner" and "good/evil." Grounded in the ontology of "Interbeing," this model seeks to offer a restorative narrative that reveals the hidden ecosystem of the Sardasht tragedy. The central research question asks: How can we move beyond single-factor narratives to unveil the concealed ecosystem of the Sardasht catastrophe, and what role does Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) play in this transition?
Methodology
To address the multi-dimensional nature of the research problem, this study employs a qualitative, "applied-developmental" approach with a multi-layered methodological design. The research framework is constructed upon three distinct analytical levels:
1. Systemic and Phenomenological Analysis: To explain the roots of the tragedy, the study utilizes Charles Eisenstein’s theory of "Interbeing" combined with Hannah Arendt’s concept of the "Banality of Evil." This layer analyzes historical documents regarding the supply chain of chemical weapons and medical reports of victims to demonstrate the biological and systemic interconnectedness of the event.
2. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Deconstruction: To critique the existing media representation, the research applies a secondary analysis to existing data on international media coverage of Sardasht. Using Jacques Derrida’s strategy of "Deconstruction" and Michel Foucault’s concept of "Biopolitics," the study exposes how Western media created a "Regime of Truth" that marginalized the victims.
3. Futures Studies and Speculative Design: To map the desired future, the study employs a speculative design approach. This layer models the application of Generative Artificial intelligence not as a tool of war, but as an epistemic agent capable of "visualizing invisible connections" and "simulating empathy."
Results and Discussion
The findings of this research deconstruct the Sardasht tragedy across three critical dimensions: ontological, structural, and technological.
First, at the ontological level, the study reveals that the catastrophe was not merely the product of individual cruelty (Saddam Hussein) but the outcome of a "Global Ecosystem of Separation." By applying the concept of the "Banality of Evil," the research demonstrates how European bureaucratic suppliers and corporate managers, driven by the "Story of Separation" and profit maximization, detached their technical responsibilities from moral consequences. This "systemic numbness" allowed for the equipping of a genocidal machine, proving that fighting "signs" (dictators) without curing the "disease" (the separation paradigm) ensures the reproduction of violence.
Second, at the structural and discursive level, the analysis confirms the existence of a mechanism of "exclusion and invisibility." The media analysis indicates that the victims in Sardasht were reduced to "bare life" within the Western geopolitical calculations of the 1980s. Through a specific "Regime of Truth," international media utilized linguistic binaries (East/West, Civilized/Barbarian) to downplay the event as a minor military incident rather than a humanitarian disaster. This silence was not accidental but a strategic function of Biopolitics to protect the interests of the "supporting periphery"—the Western supply chain—thereby rendering the victims' lives "ungrievable."
Third, regarding the technological horizon, the research proposes a transition to "Data-Driven Peace Journalism." The study argues that Generative Artificial intelligence offers revolutionary capacities to shift the narrative from "enemy-making" to "Interbeing." The proposed model utilizes Artificial intelligence in two key ways:
1. Visualizing Systemic Connections: Artificial intelligence can process vast datasets to draw visible links between abstract concepts—such as European stock market profits—and concrete realities, like cancer rates in Sardasht. This shifts the focus from an individual villain to a "criminogenic ecosystem."
2. The Empathy Machine: By integrating Artificial intelligence with Extended Reality (XR), the model suggests simulating the phenomenological experience of the victims (e.g., the sensation of shortness of breath) for global audiences. This dissolves the emotional distance and transforms the audience from passive observers into empathetic actors.
Conclusion
The study concludes that Sardasht serves as a historical warning: as long as the "root causes" (the paradigm of separation and profit-centric bureaucracy) are ignored in favor of fighting "symptoms," violence will recur. Peace Journalism must evolve from describing body counts to revealing the invisible webs of complicity. By leveraging Artificial intelligence to make these connections visible and to foster radical empathy, we can transition from a culture of enmity to a culture of shared responsibility and Interbeing.
کلیدواژهها English