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scottshepard 's review for:
American War
by Omar El Akkad
American War is ostensibly about a second civil war fought in the United States in the 2070s. Global warming is the proximate cause that reshapes the world (Florida is gone, large parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and the East Coast are underwater) and puts enormous pressure on the resources of a country that is losing its best real estate and industry. Civil wars tend not to happen to otherwise stable and successful countries so it is these stresses that set the stage for a second conflict. The federal government bans the use of fossil fuels but the oil dependent and rich south balks and eventually rebels.
The premise is kinda nutty. None of it, I don’t think, makes a lot of sense, at least not the way that it is portrayed. The South is way too weak and the North way too powerful as outlined for a struggle like this to continue for decades. Then again, the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have also taken a lot longer than I expected and in this reimagined future there are other, more global, forces at work.
However this is not what American War is actually about. It’s about radicalization. It attempts to explain how insurgents are created not born. The protagonist is a southern insurgent terrorist wrecking as much havoc as she can on the faction of the country that is oppressing her people. She sees her land torn apart, her family torn from her, and with little leadership and no other options she chooses to cause more pain to ease her own. Upon completion I hated El Akkad a little bit for making me sympathize with such a terrible terrible human. But that is the point I suppose. There is no thesis or message here beyond war is terrible and knows no limits beside those we choose to abide by. Empathy is still the greatest weapon we have for ending wars before they begin. I will definitely think on this novel in the future as I examine conflicts around the globe.
The premise is kinda nutty. None of it, I don’t think, makes a lot of sense, at least not the way that it is portrayed. The South is way too weak and the North way too powerful as outlined for a struggle like this to continue for decades. Then again, the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have also taken a lot longer than I expected and in this reimagined future there are other, more global, forces at work.
However this is not what American War is actually about. It’s about radicalization. It attempts to explain how insurgents are created not born. The protagonist is a southern insurgent terrorist wrecking as much havoc as she can on the faction of the country that is oppressing her people. She sees her land torn apart, her family torn from her, and with little leadership and no other options she chooses to cause more pain to ease her own. Upon completion I hated El Akkad a little bit for making me sympathize with such a terrible terrible human. But that is the point I suppose. There is no thesis or message here beyond war is terrible and knows no limits beside those we choose to abide by. Empathy is still the greatest weapon we have for ending wars before they begin. I will definitely think on this novel in the future as I examine conflicts around the globe.