YES! Embedded Poetry: Iraq; Through a Soldiers Binoculars -- Did the war wage itself? “Observation Post,” is the title of two poems (followed by the number of the post) and it could very well serve as a metaphor for the poetic discourse in this collection. This is poetry that sees Iraq through military binoculars and “whatever spreads before him is a battlefield” to quote Saadi Youssef. Turner called himself an “embedded poet” in an interview. The genealogy of the concept and its political deployment is well-known. It is hardly positive unless one intends to reproduce the war’s official discourse, just as the corporate media has been doing so well in the last few decades, but especially after 2003. Turner returned to Iraq in late 2010 as a civilian to write an article for National Geographic. One would expect a more critical and nuanced view, but “Baghdad After The Storm” is naïve and touristic. Turner writes about the Mongol invasion and destruction of Baghdad in 1258 and then jumps to the civil war of 2005-2007. There is no recognition whatsoever of the destructive damage brought about by the occupation army Turner was part of. The article ends on a naïvely optimistic note and sounds like one of the media’s happy stories about post-occupation Iraq: I can see more clearly now that Baghdad is becoming a new version of itself—not a place defined by war . . . but a more livable, thriving place. Although it will certainly take time, and the aftermath of war will leave an indelible signature here for the rest of our lives, Baghdad has begun to reimagine itself as a majestic city once more. These words were written at a time when the catastrophic effects of the occupation and of the policies of the corrupt political system it installed were tangible everywhere in Iraq. Here, Bullet is embedded poetry par excellence. It views Iraq and Iraqis from an observation post and through military binoculars. And whatever it sees is filtered through a version of the war’s official narrative. The occupier is a victim trapped in a foreign landscape, fighting a war in an incomprehensible place (“more incomprehensible than the moon according to the NYT review). The war in Iraq is over. We tried to help those wretched Iraqis, but it was all just too messy (Sunnis, Shi`ites, Iran. . . etc). Mistakes were made along the way. Iraqis will have to fend for themselves. This narrative, with a few variations, is parroted by the mainstream chorus. It obfuscates the tragic reality that is Iraq and absolves the authors of the war of any responsibility. The civilian victims are disappeared. The soldiers are the victims. Did the war wage itself?
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:35:02 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015