Publisher's Synopsis
The war on terror is a well-worn story but seldom do we get a chapter on the personal reality of the foot soldier.
Ben was happy to join the Marines after his outrage at 9/11 but he didn't bargain for a POW role in Fallujah. Used to working as a team and following standard orders, he now has to fall on his own mettle and wit to negotiate his way out of the quagmire of being holed up in a derelict surgery surrounded by hostile hosts after a rescue mission went awry.
One escape route is to convert to the Iraqis' faith so he will 'become one of them' and live. Salaad, a liberal clerical teacher, cum combatant, seeing the situation as an opportunity to save a soul and win allies for his nation, presents Ben with this life line. The all-powerful warlord, Karim, who everyone is anxiously waiting for to decide the fate of Ben, will not harm a new, humble convert, according to Salaad. Will it work?
Driven by self-survival, curiosity or both, Ben prods the cleric to give him the real ins and outs of the religion so he can weigh them against the damaging stories and preconceptions he harbours. At least he will not, in future, discuss matters from a position of total ignorance as most of his acquaintances tend to.
Tafiq, a Paris educated activist, would rather have Ben fry by the hot oil he has boiled for himself by joining the invaders of his land. He tries tooth and nail to disrupt the Salaad-Ben conversation and menaces Ben with his captured weapon.
The group then watch some old video clips from Karim outlining his political world view. Bordering on Absurdism, the videos sarconically portray his perceived oppressor, Vinland, as a violent, conceited, idol worshipping creature that pays homage to Power, Violence, Materialism and Propaganda.
Vinland makes supplications to four Gors (idols that are heard but not seen) for his desire to be the greatest world power ever.
They plan 'the Project' and entice him to borrow like no body's business, arm the world to the teeth and make war look like tea and biscuits.
He must embark on myriad quixotic campaigns, recruit the media and turn it into a 'pupedia' so it becomes Vinland's cheerleader. The mind of the world is then massaged so it sees him as the evil fighting Batmanic hero.
Vinland gleefully embraces this route to the global glory of the Project. What he doesn't know is that the Gors are little more than malicious tempters. In his absence they laugh that their job is not to help worshippers but only to feed Vanity. Vinland is now ruthlessly mocked for harbouring the very ideas the Gors had planted in his head. Running his nation like a rotten conglomerate, corrupting the world: like turning the ICJ, ICC into the International Court of Selective Justice and creating a world United Duma that rubber stamps his decisions.
The videos end, the action reverts to the primary scene.
Matters come to a head when Karim arrives in town with a huge force that can overrun the surgery. Ben is visited by a miraculous experience.
