Brian Turner reveals to the reader in his book of poetry entitled, Here, Bullet, that war has dramatically changed since Vietnam. We realize this mainly through his repeated point that the enemy in an advanced technological war becomes faceless. The idea of trust is completely obliterated. Turner further admonishes in his poetry that the enemy can be anyone even if they are a child. This mindset greatly affects the soldiers and the state of paranoia continues to grow until this modern state of war leaves all of them faithless and abandoned. The reader is able to recognize this inexpressible pain and the longing to release it in the poem, "Observation Post #798." Turner reflects on this untold pain, "I bend into the form of a bridge, anything to remind me I am still alive" (41).
The modern state of war also proves to the reader that everything has the possibility of vanishing within an instance. He discusses in "16 Iraqi Policemen," how Allah must wander through the crowd dazed by the confusion of the violence, "... not knowing whom to touch first, for the dead policemen cannot be found, here a moment before, then vanished" (30). For Turner, everything becomes sacred because everything around him possesses the possibility of vanishing never to return.
I found you point of the modern state of war having an feeling of everything vanishing. That is a concept I didn't pick up in the reading but in hindsight after reading your post, I understand where you're coming from. I also believe everything having the possibility to vanish adds to the soldiers paranoia in modern day war.
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