When Omar El Akkad published American War in 2017, his birth nation of Egypt as well as the rest of the Middle East was no stranger to warfare. Although most Americans’ historical perception of conflict in the Middle East only goes as far back as 2001 for millennials and the early 1990s for those old enough to remember the Gulf War, the Middle East has been more or less politically unstable since the end of WWII. This conflict in large part stems from the exodus of colonial powers in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Britain’s departure from Palestine in 1948 and the subsequent establishment of the nation of Israel has been particularly conflict-filled. Violence in the region has only intensified in the last decade, most recently in the nation of Syria. Syria has been mired in a bitterly fought civil war for the last seven years, with major Western powers taking sides, resulting in a proxy war not dissimilar from those fought during the Cold War between the United States and the U.S.S.R.
Within the last 24 hours since the writing of this post, the government of Syria has launched an alleged chemical attack on the city of Douma, which is the last rebel-held city in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta. Although the reports coming out of Syria have yet to be verified by an independent agency, medical personnel in the city have tweeted out “graphic images showing several bodies in basements.” The use of chemical weapons is not foreign to the Syrian government, as UN reports confirmed the use of Sarin gas in early 2013 in the Syrian conflict. Although the UN report did not specify who was directly responsible for the use of the weapons, several Western powers, including authorities within the United States government “said only Syrian government forces could have carried out the attack.” The level of chaos within this war-torn nation mirrors the chaos that El Akkad depicts in American War. Although the Camp Patience massacre in American War was not a chemical attack, the deaths of many innocent people along with the chaotic scene during the event mirror the real-world tragedy taking place in Douma. As well, just as the Bouazizi empire feeds the Free Southern State’s war effort against the Blue, the Syrian government has been backed in its efforts by the Russian Federation. The Russian government has begun engaging in a war of misinformation surrounding the use of chemical weapons in this most recent attack. The Syrian government has “repeatedly denied ever having used chemical weapons,” while the Russian government claims that the photos and claims of chemical warfare were “staged.” Just as the Russian and Syrian governments have denied responsibility for the claims, the Blue government likewise denied responsibility for the Camp Patience attacks. Before Sarat cuts him off, Gaines tells Sarat that the perpetrators of the massacre “call themselves the Twenty-first Indiana[…] they’re a militia, not enlisted, but there’s no doubt the Blue commanders knew what they [planned, etc.]” (170). Sarat doesn’t wait around to hear the rest of Gaines’ explanation, but instead wants only to kill those whom she deems responsible. As in American War with Sarat’s desire for revenge, we can likely expect a retaliation of equal proportions by the opposition forces in Syria. Even though there are no official reports of responsibility, those whom are believed to be responsible will ultimately be the recipients of the Syrian rebels’ retaliation. While the claims of innocence from the Russian and Syrian governments seem highly questionable, the truth of the matter has yet to be verified by an independent source, as the claims of chemical warfare are only being made by pro-opposition groups via Twitter. The misinformation of the Russian Federation mirrors that of the Bouazizi Empire in the Civil War depicted in El Akkad’s work, as the president of the Bouazizi Union claims “the government of the Bouazizi Union has no desire to impose its will on the affairs of any other nation” (144). In the world El Akkad depicts, the roles have simply been flipped; rather than the Western nations blatantly lying about their intentions and roles in conflict in the Middle East, it is the leader of the now powerful Middle East lying about his government’s role in the conflict in America. Although written in the same contemporary time frame as the Syrian conflict, the parallels between El Akkad’s text and the current situation in the Middle East are disconcerting to say the least. El Akkad’s text in this context helps reframe the conflict in Syria in terms Americans can understand, as the conflict has been brought to bear on their own present and future. Through this perhaps we can understand that the crisis in Syria is not a problem unique to the Syrian people, but is a crisis on a global scale, and requires a global humanitarian response. At present let us pray for a ceasing of violence which has to date left over 350,000 Syrian people dead, many of them innocent people and children like Sarat and her siblings. (Source for news on the Syrian gas attacks - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43686157 )
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Dr. PolakWrangler of the attendant ne'er-do-wells. Archives
May 2018
Categories |