1. War Remains Pretty Much Inevitable
There are a couple of main reasons why after reading both books I feel this way. First, there is this thing called student loans that no one wants but virtually everyone has. Both Brian Turner and Kate join the military for this reason (Brian had an MFA when he enlisted!). Virtually every single veteran I've talked to has given me a similar answer when I ask why they joined. Don't get me wrong, I think in many ways it's a great system. It even pulled my own father out of poverty and paid for his education. Nevertheless, if there remains a plethora of young people ready at any given time to go to war then war is simply going to keep happening. And no, war is not entirely to blame on the soldier. After all, Kate joined after recruiters convinced her she was going to "defend her country" but that leads to the next thing...
2. We are a Global Society Now
I bring this up because because war still has this "us versus them" rhetoric to it. The problem with this is that thanks to the internet, we're connected regardless of which country, language, or creed we belong to. Take Riverbend for instance, where a girl from Iraq exposes the atrocities the Americans commit during the war in Iraq. And guess what? Americans can read still read the blog and and get a new perspective on the war. Never before in the history of mankind was this even possible! Another great example is Julian Assange of Wikileaks. Thanks to he and his colleagues, numerous files and videos have been released exposing the horrific murders the US military has carried out with full knowledge.
In summary, my point here is that war will likely continue to go on but the public and soldiers will continue to become more and more informed of the issues the other sides face by virtue of our fully globalized society.
Upon reading Sand Queen I started to look back at Here, Bullet and pay closer attention to the scenery of the poems. Poetry doesn't have the privileges that prose has when it comes to describing scenery. With that said, Sand Queen seems to mostly be focusing on the environment of the war and the difficulties brought about by it in the first half of the novel. The Bucca Bug provides a perfect example of how the soldiers have started to name the attributes of environment they now wage war on and with. Here, Bullet uses a lot of imagery the personifies the desert with all different ranges of traits from gracefulness to dreadfulness. The tone towards the environment shifts at some points in Here, Bullet while in Sand Queen in for the most part remains monotone in a dreadful way.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you that war is inevitable. While the accumulation of soldiers increases the size of ones army that does not necessarily make war an unavoidable catastrophe. The more soldiers an army possess makes war more intimate to the public and if modern war has taught us anything it is that populations end wars. This is obviously the case in the modern large democracy's, such as the United States, where large civilian opposition brought large deescalation to Afghanistan and brought an end to Vietnam and Iraq. It is also the case though in less stable nations where rebellions and coups ends unpopular wars. The increase in the amount of soldiers bring these wars into peoples lives and the leaders know that troops on the ground is an easy way to lose support and offensives against foreign advisories is best maintained through economic and cyber attacks. Troops on the ground have become a last ditch effort by countries. I do agree though that the world has become globalized and this has helped make war a less prevalent feature in the modern world. This age of being able to read first hand accounts of the horrors of war make us less willing to commit to one. It also makes war bad for business. In an age where any small hit to a major economy will destroy the world economy most countries will try and avoid them as to not cause another recession or depression in their country.
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