| For me, the first Gulf War in 1990 had a surreal quality to it. From my living room in California, I honestly felt like I was watching a made-for-T.V. movie. My brother- in-law, a proud Desert Storm veteran, assures me that it was very real. He is proud of the time he spent in service to his country. He also suffers from Gulf War Syndrome. But for us civilians, the conflict unfolded on the evening news like a PR campaign. Understandable, considering most Americans (including myself) couldn't find Kuwait on a map. We couldn't quite fathom why we should be sending our sons and daughters to save a monarchy's gold toilet seats from Saddam Hussein, who until recently happened to be a long-term ally against the scary and evil Iran. President George Bush and his team had quite a job ahead of them to convince Americans this was a just and necessary war. Personally, I felt like the American public was being sold a diamond mine in Cleveland. Apparently, there was some validity to that assessment: See Wikipedia's Justifying the War. I began to wonder why exactly the President and his NSC believed so strongly in the need to liberate Kuwait. Was the move actually about securing Gulf oil, as some were saying? Or was there more to it? The war also felt like a trial run of sorts, toes in the water before a person commits to a steaming hot tub. Intuitively, I knew there would be another war in the Persian Gulf. A bigger, badder one. I started wondering what event could possibly bring Americans to commit to a long and costly war, given the questions and murmurs of dissent about this current conflict. More importantly, I asked myself, Qui Bono? Who Benefits? I watched issues of justification and ulterior motives swirl around President Bush and his NSC, particularly when they stopped short of capturing Saddam Hussein. I concluded that only an Islamic terrorist attack on United States soil could get Americans pissed off enough to be willing to declare war in the Persian Gulf again. I chose the World Trade Center as my target, but edited it out after the 1994 bombing. That's essentially how I found the story for my female Vice President character to star in- and years of research, interviews, and writing later, The Thief Of Sacred was complete. |
I began this novel in 1991 because of the first Gulf War
between Iraq and the United States. I wrote it with the intent of
bringing a deeper awareness of how an act of terrorism can be
fabricated to deliberately change the course of history.
As a result of my increasing fear that certain events in this
novel would indeed come to pass, I had a less polished
version copyrighted in 1998. No changes to the plot were
made after the September 11, 2001 tragedy; the original story
stands unaltered by those events.
-Jacqueline Lloyd
between Iraq and the United States. I wrote it with the intent of
bringing a deeper awareness of how an act of terrorism can be
fabricated to deliberately change the course of history.
As a result of my increasing fear that certain events in this
novel would indeed come to pass, I had a less polished
version copyrighted in 1998. No changes to the plot were
made after the September 11, 2001 tragedy; the original story
stands unaltered by those events.
-Jacqueline Lloyd
