« Sock Mobs/Bots | Main | One other reason... » January 16, 2007"Where's the outrage?"Gary Kamiya at Salon asks "Where's the outrage?" about the war in Iraq, then answers his own question. Americans are dying in Iraq, but not enough of them, and they're all volunteers, there's no danger that some senator's or judge's kid will be drafted and forced to fight and die. The death toll is still only something like 5% of Vietnam, and some of the natural opponents (Democrats) don't want to appear "soft on security." So what's left to do? Poetry. What does poetry have to do with politics? Nothing -- and everything. It is too late to stop the fatal endgame of Bush's war. But at least we can honor those who have died in that war, Iraqis and Americans alike, by refusing to look away from their deaths. Poetry, as the great Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz once wrote, is a witness. And if we the living highly resolve, as we must, that these dead shall not have died in vain, the only way to do so is by ensuring that we never again launch an unjustified war. jon posted this at 9:00 PM |
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Comments
Jon -- The best political poem I've read in ages is Frank Bidart's "To the Republic," which I blogged about here:
http://tewalkerjr.com/blog/?p=181
Cheers,
TW
Posted by: Tim Walker | January 17, 2007 3:43 PM