Assimilation of Unfamiliar Structures in New Territory (Afghanistan) : in Green on Blue by Elliot Ackerman

Abstract

In Green on Blue, Elliot Ackerman re-accentuates the concepts of assimilation between the familiar structure of war and culture of the center (America) and the unfamiliar structure of new territory (Afghanistan), reflecting the traumatic syndrome of Afghans and imaginative failure in war zones. The textual analysis of Green on Blue in alignment with the theoretical lens of Michael Rothberg encapsulates the confusion of the war on terror and the use of Afghan recruits in the name of cultural pride as fuel on the battlefield. Green on Blue emphasizes bearing witness to contemporary events, vacillating between large rhetorical gestures of the familiar center of empire and traumatic domestic details of new territory. So the familiar structure symbolizes American structure with a blue color as the center, and the unfamiliar structure symbolizes Afghan culture and scattered militant groups with a green color.  Only one female character with no imaginative attachment relegates mutual relations to the opposite gender. Afghanistan, as new territory for the American schema of seduction on textual and contextual levels, demystifies the western claims of peace and prosperity after the eradication of terrorism. Elliot Ackerman completely ignores the imaginative aspect of human life and portrays Afghans as vicious and mindless barbarians. He reinvigorates Richard Gray’s theoretical perception of failure of imagination only with the exposure of the pugnacious nature of Afghans devoid of humanitarianism. His ambiguous assimilation of center and margin proves the non-conformist alterity of new territory.