A review by emeelee
Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War by Molly Crabapple, Marwan Hisham
4.0
It's been a while now since I read this, and I never got around to reviewing. All I can really remember is that Marwan Hisham's personal, intimate viewpoint of the Syrian War felt so vital, I'm so glad that I read it. I did wish that the memoir had been more linear, but otherwise I had few complaints. 3.5 stars.
People were too cautious, and I don’t blame them for that. They were selfish too. One guy asked me why he should care, as long as his business was bringing in money. I despised him until my own doubts began. If I were living a satisfying life—if I were on the road to fulfilling my dreams—would I have participated [in the protests] so quickly? I might have blamed those reckless protesters. “Zealous undisciplined youths,” I might have said. (74)
No metaphor captures that sound a plane makes when it dives, the moment before releasing its load. It is its own—a pure creator of horror. (81)
Always, the West comes here, posturing about the protection of minorities, freedom, democracy, fair play. Always, they carve up our countries, steal our resources, bomb our cities—and then wonder why the sweet words they muttered while doing so don’t sound the same in our ears. (95)
We knew that somehow, if the rebels were not able to put down these jihadis, then, when their danger expanded beyond the borders of Iraq and Syria, the world would lash out with wrath. But, alas, the world had no interest in putting an end to ISIS as long as people like us were the only victims. […]We also knew that we would eventually be misjudged—presumed to be not ISIS’s victims but, perversely, its base of support. (146)
Was ISIS really different from the empires of the past? Was it absurd to believe they might build—or might have built—an empire and not merely a tortured parody of a state? Weren’t all civilizations built—are still built—on bloodshed? Was this not a global cycle of violence, glorification of violence, oppression, and defeat at the hands of equally violent, oppressive liberators? Regardless of the answers, the ISIS strategy obviously depended on—contrary to modern norms—the proud exhibition, rather than concealment, of its brutality. (196)
The U.S.-led coalition—which included European countries whose citizens were flying from European airports to play out their jihad fantasies in Syria—was bombing Raqqa, while those jihadi organizations were still active in European cities, sending more and more jihadis to us. […]How were European laws unable to indict homemade jihadi organizations and members, while their governments were so certain that my people in Raqqa collectively deserved doom? Our charge was terrorism, but the only undeniable truth was that governments brought charges against their own jihadis only when they arrived in Syria[.] (285)