American Soldiers Against "the War on Terror": War Trauma in Selected Poems by Brian Turner

Abstract

The U.S.-led war against Iraq, commonly labeled as the “war on terror,” was assumed to uproot terrorism in some targeted countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Described by some as “the most reckless war in modern times,”[1] the war on Iraq has unfolded the reality of the American double-standard democracy and questioned the prevailing American ideology that “US power is basically benign and altruistic.”[2] It has been argued that the attacks of September 11functioned as the pretext, which the U.S. administration has created to keep itself in an “exceptional” moment of crisis which is used “to legitimize government abuses of power”[3] and to conceal its well-planned war against Arab and Islamic countries. [1]Said“The Academy” (n.pag.) [2] Said “The Academy” (n.pag.) [3]Alsultany 207