American War is a haunting novel by Omar El Akkad in which war is depicted as a plague just as much as an actual virus is. Although this novel describes a fictional American civil war, El Akkad draws inspiration from real wars that America has fought in and the real injustices that have occurred. He essentially flips the narrative, showing the detrimental effects of war within the American landscape while the Middle East thrives, rather than the other way around. The novel tells the story of Sarat, a young and innocent child who is transformed into an instrument of revenge. Throughout the novel, El Akkad explores topics of injustice, from the senseless massacre of civilians to the grooming and exploitation of children in warfare. One of the greatest injustices that is described is the treatment of prisoners at the Sugarloaf Detention Facility. There, Sarat is tortured until she cooperates with her capturers, undergoing punishment in the Light Room, the Sound Room, and eventually waterboarding. In the novel, it is implied that her capturers do not know exactly what crimes she has committed and are torturing her to get the confessions that they want. Sarat spends several years imprisoned on the island, even after confessing to crimes she has not committed. She is only released after the war is over and is then forced to sign papers agreeing to not seek legal action against the U.S. government for her imprisonment.
Shockingly enough, the conditions that Sarat experiences while imprisoned in the Sugarloaf Detention Facility are based on the actual conditions that prisoners were subjected to at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. An article by Amnesty International UK describes the history of Guantanamo Bay. The detention camp was established following the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a part of the “war on terror” declared by President George Bush. There, individuals who were perceived to be enemy combatants were held and tortured. Since its establishment, 779 people have been taken to the facility, but only seven have been convicted, and even then, it is believed that the trials were not fair. NPR states that the interrogation program has been in shutdown since President Obama took office in 2009, yet as of September 11th, 2020, 40 detainees have remained in Guantanamo Bay. The Guardian outlines some of the horrific torture methods that were used by the CIA at Guantanamo Bay, which they called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Some of these techniques included rectal feeding and rehydration, confinement in a box, waterboarding, beatings and threats, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and forced nudity. The Conversation states how, despite the unethical nature of these methods of torture, many government officials still voice support of them as a way to punish people and gain intelligence. Interestingly enough, a recent U.S. government report has suggested that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques is ineffective. Input from scientists supports this suggestion, as it is known that stress, fear, and physical injury negatively impact the brain and a person’s ability to remember information. Some professionals involved in human intelligence and special operations in the field, like former FBI agent Ali Soufan, who NPR interviewed as a part of the previously noted article, agree that torture is not the most effective method. In the article, Soufan states that building rapport with al-Qaida suspects was more effective and produced more information than torture techniques such as waterboarding. Given the detrimental effects that imprisonment has on Sarat’s physical body and mentality that El Akkad describes, he does not condone the use of torture or the prolonged detention of individuals. The women that were released from Sugarloaf had a hard time reintegrating back into society after being tortured and imprisoned for so long. In fact, several of them committed suicide and Sarat herself was so embittered and broken from her time there that she agreed to release the Reunification Plague as a final act of revenge. That being said, El Akkad’s novel brings up a plethora of additional questions concerning torture and imprisonment. Why has it taken so long for these techniques to be prohibited, especially when alternative methods have produced better outcomes? What does it say about us as a society that we have been so complicit with the use of such violent and destructive techniques? How can we improve the system?
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AuthorHi, I'm Rhi! In these blog posts, I will be exploring and reflecting on common themes found in post-apocalyptic literature. Archives
April 2021
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