War on Terror

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Novels on the War on Terror

QUESTION 1

Novels on War on Terror gives detailed information on the ongoing military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom and their allies against organization and regimes identified as terrorists. Over the past years, the literature has grown in terms of particular events regardless of intellectual focus. It has brought out the exclusion of other independent counter-terrorists operations and campaigns which include Russia and India. The two novels are linked with iconographic and verbal discourses that occur for many years and are placed in the position of narratives that captivate. They also describe the wartime experiences that include anxiety, insecurity, conflict and national vulnerability. Highlights are given in the paper presenting the themes present in the novels, which include masculinity visualization, the subject of human extremes, and the idea of national security.

Visualization of masculinity is one of the underlying themes that manifested in the novel explaining the interaction of the terrorists with the civilians and humanitarians in Afghanistan. The feminist has given insightful accounts of the relationship presented between the masculinities and the military. The novels arise some political questions and exhibit the anxiety expressed in the narrative of crisis which relates to physical danger and culture doubts and questioning. Al-Qaeda oppressed women and children by taking away their basic need and flashing them away from the cultures and practices they had been used to. They caused a separation of their families and led them to poverty, putting their lives at high risks. Women were at significant risk of lacking all the need they required for their lives to prosper (Ross, 2013). For girls over the age of eight, their schooling was terminated, and women universities were closed.

The promotion of manliness ideology is revealed when an individual is commanded to follow specific codes and expectations that give a sense of the community. The society is seen to be restricted from having professionals since all women were banned from going to work. Medical care access was limited, and all were brutally forced to have a specific dress code as commanded by the leader. All women who laughed out loud were beaten, and restrictions were made for free movement in the communities. Violence is even revealed to their place of living where the soldiers try their best to consolidate their militarized identities and institutions to protect their people from attacks. Throughout the novels, gender division is high presented in the United States and also in other states. Masculinity is essential and represents American power, where the role of manhood is necessary for the American culture in the handling of conflict, which is a test of their strength.

The recent years have presented the U.S. moderate political philosophy that avoids extremes of literature by assessing the retributive violence that is shown in the War of Terror. The literature presented in the novels addresses the specific events. It captures the outlook of the period that the events occurred together with the destruction, violence and despair created by the War of Terror. The novel presents different thematic elements which include visualization of masculinity in crisis and the development of narrative through silence and ineffectual activities. Explorations of specific characters and themes have been highly presented in the novel (Gormley, 2019). Moreover, the relationship between colonialism and global politics has been examined, giving a fiction that offers a significant standpoint on the roles played by the United States and Europe in different contexts of Terror.

The novels bring out the setting of the events and the characters that are involved. The War on Terror is an international military campaign that was launched by the government of the United of States government after the attacks that happened on September 11, 2001. It involved nineteen terrorists who attacked and hijacked the East Coast Flights where they crashed four airplanes in Washington D.C. and New York. The passenger in the fourth plane fought back making the plane land into a field in Pennsylvania. The attack marked a high rate of dead people in the United States, where the total was 2.977 dead people. Moreover, the United States was attacked by the Al Qaeda, prompting George Washington to declare “War on Terror” campaign that involved the militant. He also called for the world leaders to join the campaign to help the U.S. respond to the war. However, the war did not end until all the terrorist group in the globe had been reached and defeated.

Launch of the airstrikes is done in Afghanistan by the United States and Great Britain at the Al Qaeda training and targeted places. The ground war starts as the leader of the Al Qaeda; Osama Bin Laden initiates his group and the Special Forces in Kandahar. The United States gets support from Netherlands, France, Germany, Turkey, Italy and Poland where they deploy their troops to Afghanistan. The Taliban regime supported the al-Qaeda group, and it greatly influenced the Afghanistan people where they brutalized them, making them starve, and others run for the safety of their lives.

The group is defined by hatred, where they hate every person who goes against their doctrine. They only love power and worship it where they use the ability to kill people mercilessly. In Afghanistan, they were against every person who owned a television, and they did not allow women to attend schools. They were also against men who did not have long beards and even dictated the religion that should be practised by everyone. They had a philosophy that led their faith where they believed it was excellent to steal food that was made for starving and innocent families. Besides, they used innocent people as shields for all their military purposes and oppressed women and pressured them under lifetime poverty.

A theme of human extremes is represented in the novels where several dramas have been revealed through the actions of human beings. The consequences of such dramatic manifestations have been explained in the aspects presented in the War on Terror. For instance, the Taliban regime and the al-Qaeda targeted the civilians where they used them as shields during their military activities. Military instruments were set in innocent people places like the hospitals, homes, streets and the mosques and also hijacked the humanitarians’ aid facilities to satisfy their military quest. They stored and hid their military weapons in different caves around in all the villages that people lived.

The government of Saddam Hussein destroyed the relationship between the United States and Iraq, which led to sanctioning of their economy being imposed in the whole country. The American side was left for an argument as the military part won the war. The American troop was in fear that weapons for massive destructions would be released by Hussein, which was capable of creating a great disaster on the whole country. War leads to domestic insecurity where the Americans created enmity with any Muslim Americans leading to hate crimes against Muslims (Gormley, 2019). The situation led to sectarian conflicts since the Americans were not prepared for the long term fight. Regardless of the adverse war with the militants, the American death was less as compared to Iraqis.

The novel also reveals the theme of National security where in other countries like Turkey, the honor of some Turkish soldiers is shown where the U.S. soldiers in Northern Iraq capture it through a confrontation done to the commander who was responsible for the action. After the efforts are taken to restore Turkey, the U.S. officer is killed, making people happy since it has been a norm for the U.S. force ruling over other people. The aftermath of the American’s power the president presented an urge to everyone to support the country, the political leaders and every man who participates in the firefighting or is a member of the soldier team.

Since the war did not mark the end of violent foreign threats, the Americans had to ready for possible enemies to attack them, especially the Muslim Americans who are in the country. They had to form a Homeland Security Act whose function provided control to different features of the government and also provide security to any threats imposed (Dodds, 2008). President Bush takes the initiative of delivering twenty billion dollars that should cater for the Homeland security by strengthening the efforts of the intelligence and creating an office of the Homeland Security and the Security Council. Implementation of measures that cater for protection of the new airlines is made, a step that provides security to the Americans.

Conclusively, the chapters in the novels have been well formulated and organized to present the themes that surround the American power in War on Terror. A discursive construction is shown in the novels where the authors integrate information from the global and local fictions, making it presentable to the reader. Fiction is high outstanding in the tradition that does not limit information concerning the trauma literature. Information is represented touching on the theoretical, historical and political background making the novels to be fascinating while reading. War on Terror gives different imaginaries to the reader on different geographical contexts. The themes used in the books exhibit a reign of mourning and nostalgia, which provides a compelling argument in the stories.

References

Dodds, K. (2008). Hollywood and the Popular Geopolitics of the War on Terror. Third World Quarterly, 29(8), 1621-1637.

Gormley, P. (2019). Blowing Up the War Film: Powerlessness and the Crisis of the Action‐Image in The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds. A Companion to the Action Film, 364-380.

Ross, M. (2013). Generation apocalypse now: The Vietnam war’s cultural legacy in the global war on Terror. The Journal of American Culture, 36(4), 342.

QUESTION 2

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Greatness and Continuing Significance of all quiet on the Western Front

Wright, J. (2019). Re-Reading Birth of a Nation: European Contexts and the War Film. Black Camera, 10(2), 36-51.

The author of the article explains Birth of Nation after its release from slavery of the European countries. The European context is presented in terms of a social, cultural and political context where different concerns are reflected, such as hierarchical social shaping and the aim of getting a coherent nation. The birth of a country is represented in film form where different points are driven towards the current debates that give a response from the audience. Promotional publicity is highly and well documented, where different themes are presented emerging from historical and archival materials (Wright, 2019). Impacts of the culture of birth are examined to clarify how religion, race and nationalism are presented in the form of a film where the target is to get the contemporary concern of the cultural, social and political value. In the movie, contexts of war are presented where the countries struggle during times of war, but afterwards, a rebirth is experienced in political, social and economic sectors.

Höglund, J. (2018). Censorship, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Popular War Film. In Manufacturing Imaginaries: Censorship, Counter-discourses and the Technical Society, 15-17 Nov 2018.

The author of the article explains how the U.S. department has invested its energy concentrating on defence against war by protecting the civilians. The Vietnam War is a clear indication of the struggle that the United Stated faced. From war zones, criticism is made concerning the Vietnam War, and zones of the battle depending on the outlets for information. While giving war information, the national media control how the news is reported from the war zones and how the armed forces are presented. Any filming that is seen to follow the line of entertaining any war activities is never funded for conducting the activities. Most of the war films represent violence; therefore; the funding organization considers the censorship of visual presentation keenly and ensures that the content in the film is human friendly. According to the author, the Department of Defense examines any bluster films before funding and blocks the scripts. It has the authority to edit any writing that does not match with its terms and conditions, especially where guns, helicopters and other war tools have been included.

Tholas, C., Goldie, J. L., & Ritzenhoff, K. A. (Eds.). (2019). New Perspectives on the War Film. Springer International Publishing.

Women have proved to be legends and warriors of war hence capturing the imagination of war activities. The idea of soldier wife has grown up, which has increased the morale of fighting men and the most evocative and of all female heroines is the defenceless victim that is caused by the war. The above image brings an image that provokes pity as well as revenge among the women soldiers and the victims. According to the author, women soldiers have existed as the complements of men soldiers which create encouragement to the men in the war sector. The historical events presented in the article praise the women relationship to war and the times of military. Women civilians in many countries were raped, and their rights violated, which created a big debate on the war crimes committed against women (Tholas, Goldie & Ritzenhoff, 2019). Due to the situation, women choose to fight for their rights and the rights of others against men who have o respect for their fellow citizens.

Tasker, Y. (2016). The action film, the war film, and the Western. The Routledge Companion to Cinema & Gender, 111.

Action war and movies have a significant characteristic of a fundamental way about masculinity creating a genre that provides an extraordinarily fruitful site for exploring codes of masculinity. The war films are framed in terms of either female masculinity creating extended stabilization mobility. The genre represents an iconic image of male strength in the war film, presenting an idea of masculinity. The vigorous movement is the primary recurring genre, and illustrative of the literature presented in the war film and represents a theme of independence. A characteristic of the hero is described by interest on the freedom to move and giving a challenge to individual and other circumstances. The physical strength is presented in significant and different ways and fantastical physical capabilities. According to Tasker, the Western deals with the formation of America, which is a presentation masculinity identity that involves the white male authority over the territory that requires subjection (2016). The national discourses of masculinity are the primary and central theme of war film. Both the Westerns and war films are action films whose genre is prominent to the scene of pursuit.

Norris, M. (2016). Writing war in the twentieth century. University of Virginia Press.

The author explains the conflict that transpired during Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War leading to problematic relationships subjecting them to criticism in terms of postmodernism. The modern texts have been explored responding to the century war that critical debate over contemporary art. The modern war represented in high numbers shows a large and arguably weak gesture because of the dead bodies presented after the war. The situation shows unimaginable events that cannot be solved by material things (Norris, 2016). An ontological significance is represented by the war consensus of the dead that represents significance to the Americans. According to Norris, the threat extending beyond the borders of the century into its future, lead to a legacy of the Civil War due to its renewal by the atomic bomb tests of India and Pakistan.

References

Höglund, J. (2018). Censorship, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Popular War Film. In Manufacturing Imaginaries: Censorship, Counter-discourses and the Technical Society, 15-17 Nov 2018.

Norris, M. (2016). Writing war in the twentieth century. University of Virginia Press.

Tasker, Y. (2016). The action film, the war film, and the Western. The Routledge Companion to Cinema & Gender, 111.

Tholas, C., Goldie, J. L., & Ritzenhoff, K. A. (Eds.). (2019). New Perspectives on the War Film. Springer International Publishing.

Wright, J. (2019). Re-Reading Birth of a Nation: European Contexts and the War Film. Black Camera, 10(2), 36-51.