JMO- Soldier Poet

This is a touchy subject with almost anyone, the war in Iraq. We all see the news on television, hear it on the radio and read about it in the newspapers and magazines. The problem I've found is that it's almost information overload and hard to get an idea about what the war is really like, at the street level as a soldier and human being.

Well, in my opinion, to get the reality, read Brian Turner's book, "Here, Bullet". You can hear an interview with him on NPR along with some poems from the book.

Please read this book. Read each poem out loud in your mind, to yourself or to others, so you hear the words. Let the words seep into your mind, your heart and your soul. Let it touch you and feel what the war is really like for the soldiers working and people living there. And ask yourself if you could do what the soldiers do and could you live there like the Iraqis do everyday. Everyday.

And then think about your view of the war and what we have done, to our own nation and people and to the nation and people of Iraq. Think out loud and share. Brian Turner deserves all the recognition he can get. There is nothing new here in a way, writers and poets have long been able to describe war better than anyone.

"This is a strange new kind of war where you learn just as much as you are able to believe." - Ernest Hemingway