American War

"They knew how to find the ones who were most likely to do it. They kept watchers in the hospitals, where they looked for suicide attempts, and in the schools, where they looked for outcasts, and in the churches, where they looked for hard-boiled extremists feverish with the spell of the Lord. From there, they forged weapons." 

Among the chief concerns of the novel is the method by which terrorists are radicalized. Contrary to some arguments on the matter, the author believes that religious or ideological extremism is but one condition recruiters exploit. Loneliness, hopelessness, and general resentment can be exploited just as powerfully.

"Your side fought the war, but the war never happened to you." 

This quote explores the vastly different dynamics facing armies that send their troops elsewhere to fight a war, versus those who fight on their home turf. For the South or other real-life warzones in the Middle East, the experiencing the war in your own backyard is a radicalizing force in and of itself.

"Sarat thought how easy it would be to fix the mistake, to simply redraw the stars properly. But she knew that even broken history is history. The stars, cast wrong, must remain that way. It would be more wrong to change them." 

In considering the reasons the Free Southern State never fixed the asymmetrical stars on its hastily-drawn flag, Sarat examines the extent to which people hold their traditions close, even when those traditions are broken and no longer serve the people who embrace them.