Yusef & Turner

Both Yusef and Turner use a type of fantasized imagery in their poems. In Yusef’s poem about visiting the Vietnam War Memorial, he imagines seeing a ghost walking by and a woman who seems to be brushing off names, but is actually brushing a boy’s hair. In Turner’s poem R&R, he does something similar where he switches between fantasies to avoid a reality. In both situations, the fantasies are fleeting, only lasting a few lines or even just one. The both switch between ideas so quickly in a single poem that it makes time seem of the essence, which would be rather fitting giving the poems are about war. 

The war in Vietnam was an almost hybrid type of warfare in the sense that the United States was fighting its first war where not all combatants were uniformed or identifiable. Some were uniformed soldiers, but others were guerrilla fighters, disguised as a housewife, a child, a newborn in its crib, or even a town elder. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been fought almost entirely in this style, however, a uniformed combatant is no where to be found. At any point a soldier has to be conscientious of who he’s engaging. I doubt we will ever know how many civilians have been killed because of misunderstanding. The guerrilla tactics and style of the various terror cells in the middle east have been successful in ruining the moral of our country and our military. When you don’t have a defined goal, victory is almost impossible. When the person at the wrong end of your rifle isn’t wearing a uniform, but could pull out a pistol and shoot you, the confusion and stress becomes too burdensome. Additionally, war doctrines have to be re-written, training takes a new direction, and leadership is all about motivation.