Brian Turner War

The phrase anti-war comes with many preconceived ideas and connotations. Depending on what an individual’s beliefs and philosophies are will determine whether this phrase is seen in a positive or negative light. Many poets use the artistic medium to convey their feelings and beliefs on the subject of war. In his poem “Next to of Course God America I” E..E. Cummings uses political satire to comment on ill-considered way in which politicians will send others off to fight and die in war (Cummings, 896). Brian Turner in his poem “Jundee Ameriki” is able to show part of the true cost of war, which leads the reader to a cost-reward analysis of war (Turner, 1013). Wilfred Owen with eloquent wordsmithing in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” is able to immerse the reader in the reality of war and remove the polish from the myth that
The poem begins with the speaker, an Iraq war veteran describing a procedure they are undergoing in the treatment of an old war wound “At the VA hospital in Long Beach, California, Dr. Sushruta scores open a thin layer of skin to reveal an object traveling up through muscle.” The reader later learns of the incident that caused the soldiers injury “And if he were to listen intently, he might hear the rough and larynx of this woman calling up through the long corridors of flesh, saying Allah al Akbar, before releasing her body’s weapon,” it is at this point that Turner solidifies in the reader's mind one of the true costs of war. He does this with the lines “her dark and lasting gift for this Jundee Ameriki, who carries fragments of the war inscribed in scar tissue, a deep, intractable pain, the dull grief of it the body must learn to absorb.” Turner’s intent with his poem may not be a solely anti-war message, but by showing the results and aftermath of war the anti-war message is achieved nonetheless (Turner,