Afghanistan Revisited

By smokejack

Tue, 22 Sep 2009
  • 2190 reads
11 comments
 

Afghanistan Revisited

An 18 year old boy
Flew to Afghanistan last week
Along with his new found friends
I’m sure they are all scared
Despite being taught not to feel

The 18 year old boy chose to join up
Because the alternative was drugs
Or long term unemployment
Or imprisonment

Training in a jungle against no enemy
Is not the same as landing in a desert
Where the killers are silent
And people you’ll never get to meet
At least not in this world

There will be noise
And horror and screams
There will be blood
And death and fear
There will be bravado, body counts
And silence

Ashes to dust

If the 18 year old boy comes home alive
He will be set free from his torture
And fall into a life of

drugs

long term unemployment

or imprisonment.

©SJ2009

Certificate U
Poem
Opinion

Comments

Submitted by chuck on
Look on the bright side. At least we don't have press-gangs anymore.

Submitted by smokejack on
'the world would be a better place if the parents had to eat the sprouts' What an odd thing to say. I trust you treat death as an inconvenience? Maybe you just lost your soul in Thailand. Your comment isn't very funny and the irony is flimsy but thanks for passing a comment anyway.

Submitted by chuck on
Don't know who made the 'sprouts' comment. Wasn't me. Your poem seemed to be about signing up as an alternative to prison. My comment about press-gangs was meant to show that things haven't changed much. I could have phrased it differently I suppose.

Submitted by smokejack on
It's a poem about young kids joining up because there's not much else out there for those considered unacademic or not interested in pursuing a professional desk job. It's a poem about how working class kids are expendable and plentiful and for those soldiers who are invalided out of the army whose lives will change forever and sadly not for the better (and who the army quickly forget about). More importantly to me, the poem is a reference to my 18 year old nephew who left for Afghanistan last week and I would like him and all of his comrades to come back safe and well without killing anyone on the other side of what is a pointless pr exercise for the US and the UK. I guess my retort was probably in haste and I took it too personally which was unfair on you so I apologise to you Chuck. It's a heart on sleeve issue for me.

Submitted by reaver1_89 on
Okay, honestly? I kind of take this as a bash on those in the military. What, are you saying that all of us that were in that situation are doomed to make the wrong choice anyways? Cause ya know what? I WAS in that situation, but I have enough mental and intestinal fortitude to avoid making the wrong decision. I understand being anti-war, but maybe saying that all a lot of us have to look foward to is drugs, long-term unemployment, or prison is a little too harsh, don't you think? A little tact, man. That's all I'm asking.

 

Submitted by smokejack on
a 'bash at the`military?' You're off beam Reaver it's a direct aim at the politicians and despots who push loyal and courageous soldiers into a war that could be avoided. It's also about those soldiers who once the army has finished with them offer very little support and life gets tougher for them. I'm not for one minute suggesting every soldier will descend into a silent post war madness. Tact isn't the issue here.

Submitted by chuck on
OK. It's obviously a sensitive issue for you. But you make it sound as though youngsters have no choice. I'm sure a lot of them sign up for all kinds of reasons.

Submitted by smokejack on
Very True Chuck I guess all my poem has done is prove the power of words and how they can stimulate debate. My principle idea was to show the cruel irony for someone who joins up to get them out of a life that offers nothing who then survives a war but is traumatised by the experience and who ends up back in the life that he or she ran away from that's all. Anyway I think that's all I'll say on this particular poem but thanks to you and Reaver for your comments. Jack

Submitted by chuck on
Well I have my own ideas about what's going on in Afghanistan. But basically it's a volunteer army. I hope your nephew comes home safe.

Submitted by tcook on
I join in that sentiment re: your nephew. I think what it really says is that we are all feeling very powerless over this war. There's never been any debate about it, there's been no spectacular opposition to it and the kids are coming home in a mess if they come home at all. It's all a lot more complex than these few lines can begin to express but I think it's time we all talked and took some responsibility for this war - instead of thinking it's all about someone else. I spent the best part of a year in Afghanistan in 1974/5 and have lost some very good friends in this war - and they were innocent bystanders. I suspect that we would all feel rather differently about it if it was taking place in our back yard.

Submitted by Kurt Rellians on
I think this is a very effective poem. The irony of the way out of the war for such a young man is a point worth making. What do we, as a society, do with our fighters once they come home? Are they valued enough? And does civilian society have a proper place for them, or for other young people?