Turner's Lens

There is no romanticizing modern warfare. The equipment lacks any aesthetically pleasing details. The uniforms look like Jackson Pollock exercises. Turner's poetry deserves praise because it transmutes what would be so completely banal and barely worthy of note in prose form.

The Iraq War is a cynical one—fundamentally different from the war in Vietnam because it is generally beneath people’s notice.

I don’t want to say that people have fewer illusions in regards to the Iraq War, but I think that people for the most part, really don’t care about it. For the most part, it seems to be felt that though what we are doing is probably unethical, but our hand has been forced. Even though we’ve only gone to war to protect our own financial interests—and we should probably feel like that’s wrong and bad—we are both hapless and complacent in regards to it. Chances are, we stand to benefit as a whole from the ongoing warfare—we should just be thankful that there isn’t a draft. 

Turner's own complacency, as a soldier, represents a perspective that we probably aren’t very interested it, but feeling guilty that he suffered in our stead, we read it.

Once this initial aversion is breeched, Turner’s perspective in his situation makes him relatable. He has a desire to interact with the people he is forcibly alienated from and therefore must instead imagine how their lives must be.