In Dystopian “American War,” No Red Cross, But Red Crescent

Dependent on the Kindness of (Foreign) Strangers

One of the more jarring images in “American War,” Omar El Akkad’s debut novel about a dystopian U.S. 50 years hence, is the presence of the Red Crescent on American soil.

Of course, to early 21st century Americans, it’s the Red Cross that gets dispatched to war zones abroad to provide humanitarian aid. 

Good Intentions, But . . .

Therewith is the central conceit of El Akkad’s novel:  thanks to the ravages of civil war and a subsequent pandemic that kills 100 million(!), it’s now American citizenry that needs global aid.

Humbling as that fact is, it’s made worse by the donors’ ignorant if well-intentioned offerings.

So, even though the American South is now Sahara desert hot, and Florida ceases to exist (the new coastline is along Georgia, well north of what used to be the Panhandle), heavy blankets continue to arrive from abroad by the ship and pallet-full.

Meanwhile, the more valuable aid gets purloined and sold on the black market.

Can it Happen Here??

The role reversal is enough to leave your head spinning.

In fact, El Akkad’s vision is so jarring that it’s easy to dismiss it as fantastical.

To realize it’s (potentially) not, unfortunately, all one needs to do is read today’s headlines about Venezuela, which was a successful Western democracy less than 25 years ago; the carnage in historic Syrian cities like Aleppo; or, for that matter, open ocean in the Arctic where there’s been ice for tens of thousands of years.



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