The world has we know it is one that has been plagued by a deep history of war. Even today we constantly see and hear about war and we see it’s devastating effects on those who are caught in the middle. Often, it is the those who are caught in the middle who suffer the most. Those who are caught in the middle are often civilians, people who have done nothing wrong, the innocent. One of most common ways that civilians are caught in the middle is from the act of suicide bombings. Growing-up, I remember hearing and seeing the accounts and aftermaths of such bombings on the news. With the most rememberable one being 9-11, this attack on the World Trade center in New York took the life of more than 2,977 people and the effects of it can still be seen today. With people dying years later from complications and cancer, with even several pregnancies have been lost because of 9-11. Another set of bombings that I remember well are countless ones I have heard about in Iraq, where many civilians were killed, and children where often used as bombers. These attacks unfortunately, however, aren’t the worst things I have heard and see come from war throughout my life, that unfortunately would have to be the recounts of torture I have learned about throughout the years. Many torture victims are civilians that have been captured as either a form of ransom because they are tough to know critical information or because they have been accused of a crime. Regardless of the reason these people are often put through hell, either by being beaten, waterboarded and even sexually abused. Most people after being tortured are killed, but some are returned to society, but at a great cost to the individual who was tortured. More times than not the person is unable to function in society and they have metal problems that will follow them for life, like PTSD. This flows into another common occurrence of war, the refugee camps, more specifically the mistreatment and poor living conditions of these camps. Often at times the people living in these camps have poor access to food and become victims of violence. All these harsh realities of war can be found in American War and center around Sarat, a true civilian victim in the novel. She experiences all these horrible things firsthand, first her father is killed in a suicide bombing when filling out paperwork that will allow for work in the north. The bomber was a mentally ill person, on the road to suicide who was talked into doing the bombing. This bombing not only killed Sarat’s father, causing emotional damage, but it also caused her life and the life of her family to change forever. They are forced to move out of their home into a refugee camp that is riddled with violence and horrid living conditions. In fact, during Sarats time at the camp she is victim of violence, however not only is she herself assaulted, but her mother is killed, and her brother suffers brain damage from a bullet to the head.
To top off Sarat’s experience, she herself, ends up being a victim of torture and is released after. This has a devastating effect on her psyche, has she has had constant PTSD attacks and she is hardly able to function in society afterwards as a result. In fact, her psyche drops so much that she releases a virus on the world that kills millions of people. Overall, all of the things that have happened to Sarat parallel our real world and help to showcase a huge issue our world faces, civilians and their lives being changed by war. Sarat, like the people in the Iraq and 9-11 bombing attacks, has her life changed forever, she lost someone and her home. Not the mention the effects of these bombings followed her for the rest of her life and had alarming effects. Her time at the refugee camp reflects what those campus are like in real life and highlight some of the horrors that go down at them. Lastly, her time as a torture victim highlights the very real issues that arise when torture is used during times of war and the devastating effects it can have not only the person tortured by the societies, they live in. Due to all of this, I fear that if we don’t change the way civilians are affected during war times, we could face similar or worse outcomes as presented in the novel. Links: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/torture https://aoav.org.uk/2020/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11_attacks
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