Baghdad Burning

While reading the blogs on the River bend and Baghdad Burning I found that my favorite post was “National Day”. It was really eye opening for me to see what the initial war in Iraq was like for those innocent people who lived there. I remember being 9 years old, watching the TV and seeing the explosions around the city. The only thing I knew was that this was where the people who brought down the towers lived. I remember thinking that we were finally getting them back, and moved on with my 9 year old life. Looking back at it now, I feel embarrassed that I thought those things. I know I was innocent and naïve back then, but to read about how so many lives were changed by war is really shocking. I can’t imagine anything like that happening in the U.S. I would think that if that happened everyone would care about the innocent lives, but in Iraq innocent lives were taken and no one seemed to really care over here in the states. While reading this particular blog, I found it weird that April 9^th, 2003 will be a date that many Iraqi’s compare to our own 9/11. It just seems so surreal that we are capable of such destruction. Our military is seen in a heroic light, and to imagine that what they do invokes fear and death sometimes in innocent lives is heartbreaking. This course has really opened me up to new perspectives of war and I can see that there is little progress that comes from war. For both sides in war, it seems that the ultimate sacrifice of one’s life is given, but not much else in return. It is really sad that our world hasn’t learned from previous destructions of war, and that we show no sign of slowing down.

Two Peas in a Pot

I came to the realization that because I am not a U.S. citizen I was never really that interested in the post 9/11 events. I knew that the twin towers had been destroyed by terrorist and that the U.S. was going to go to war with its attackers. Other than that I didn’t really care, I didn’t need more information because it did not really affects any of my family members.  As shallow and narrow minded as it sounds, worrying about the problems of the U.S. was not at the top of my priority list.  We had problems of our own in our country; corruption, poverty, power outages and inflation. The U.S was simply another country that was going through a rough time. In my mind I thought, “the U.S. is a world power, they can take care of themselves”. Only now I understand the true extend and repercussions of 9/11 and the War on Terror.

This blog has left me speechless and appalled. Reading Riverbend’s accounts of life in occupied Iraq was an awakening experience. What really sadden me though are the violent replies to her blog. Her account of the occupation does shed a negative light of the American army and its actions in Iraq and I do understand why some people would feel insulted by it. However she is simply saying something that not everyone wants to hear because it is easier to ignore it. Is she the first person to question the American occupation? No. Is she saying that all American’s are evil and stupid? No. Is she claiming to be right? No. She is simply stating what she perceives and what some Iraqis think. I do agree with her. Americans should have never occupied Iraq and they do not know what is best for Iraq. No country should ever occupy another in order to “restore order” because they do not understand it in the first place. They wouldn’t understand the culture, the economy or, the mentality and thus fail to establish a government that can actually be successful. This is not the first time the U.S. has intervened in a country in an attempt to “restore order” or “liberate an oppressed” country. A similar situation happened to us in 1965. After the assassination of our former dictator Rafael L. Trujillo in 1961 there was a power struggle for the control of the country. In 1965 with threats of dislodging another government and revolts U.S. troops invaded Dominican Republic with the justification of preventing the birth of a “New Cuba”. However this occupation just led to more bloodshed and the installation of a new dictator (he was not considered a dictator because election were being held but he ran un opposed for 16 years). I am not saying that the U.S. had bad intentions (even though their intentions are unclear) it is just too much of a cultural difference to be successful and in the process it is doing more harm than good.
I also found how much I can relate to her accusation of Americans being ignorant of the culture. I don't know how many times I have gotten remarks like "I didn't know you had electricity!", "I though you guys lived in tree houses", "I thought all Dominicans were Black". I would love to be joking about this. but I am not.  

Baghdad Burning

As I read Riverbend’s blog entries, I gain a broader perspective of the war in the Middle East. There is a stereotype that comes from where she lives. In one of her entries, she addresses the ignorance that outsiders can have towards her people. She says that people assume that they attend school on the backs of donkeys and live in huts. The idea that those who are different are automatically wild savages is a thought that has occurred since the beginning of exploration, such as the first settlers assuming the Native Americans were savages because they knew nothing about them. 

Riverbend lives a life that I could not fathom living. Something that I noticed as I was reading her entries is the huge difference between her life and American life. There is a constant threat that looms over her every day from living in an area of the world devastated by war and terror. She quotes the BBC, explaining that according to the organization, 70 cars a day are being hijacked in her country. Another time she discusses how a major death occurs, and people just shrug their shoulders and move on. Like it doesn’t effect them much. One of her cousins just expresses his dislike of  the deceased victim. The author also explains that she could not sleep at night because of her fear of raids or looting. Often I forget how grateful I should be that I am safe from harm and have the luxuries that I do. I personally could not imagine living in a world where the threat of harm were a day-to-day guarantee, but for Riverbend and those who live in her country, it is a painful reality.  

Hope Out of Chaos

As I read a blog entry after blog entry, I found myself immersed in Riverbend’s writing and how powerful and candid it is. Her blog paints an authentic picture that we are rarely allowed to see about the war. The media distorts it by creating the war to be a political affair that eventually led to “liberation” but as Riverbend records her musings, her daily life, and takes is into her world, she gives a gripping account of what it really means to live in Baghdad during that period.

I found myself laughing at times when she debunks the myths with riveting, sardonic humor like how Iraqis do own a computer or how kids do not actually go to school on camels. Her writing, oftentimes, reminds me of Tim O’Brien’s, she tells it like it is and does not leave anything out. However, amid the humor, there was sorrow and grief intertwined. Sometimes, I had to take a break from reading because I felt devastated by how much she has lost and how everything in her life has changed.

It was intriguing how she called the war as an occupation and that no one owned anything anymore—ownership was obliterated and nothing belonged to anyone. As her blog grew gloomier, my knowledge of the war expanded. How devastating it was for her to not be able to sleep at night due to looters, raids, and hearing distant bombs exploding. One of her blog entries that really got to me was how she developed a new talent. She can now distinguish what gun was used if she heard shootings or whose side was shooting, etc., etc. Her writing style is impeccable as well; as a reader, I can envision myself with her in her car, waiting for the traffic to speed up, and making sure you don’t look at someone in the eye for fear of ‘causing trouble’.  

Her grim account of this whole ordeal reveals what it truly was like to live in Baghdad. The media always makes it look like every Iraqi is a criminal, when, in truth, they are victims mourning for the home they had lost. All in all, I am glad that Riverbend is somewhere safe and still is. I also hope that her wounds are not that deep so that they can begin to heal. 

Baghdad Burning

I decided to start the blog from the beginning. "I'm female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. That's all you need to know. It's all that matters these days anyway." It was very blunt and showed how she was looked at where she was from. All that mattered after the war was whether you survived it or not. It doesn't seem to matter what happened before or what is happening after, surviving is the thing that defined her. Whether that be good or bad is unknown. She seems to rant and find things bothersome like anyone else in the world such as having trouble sleeping. But the reasons for her not being able to sleep are different. I find it crazy with how much fear those in Iraqi had to live with. I can't even fathom what that would even be like. But at the same time she seems to be numb to everything because she has lived with it for so long. It's a sad thing that fear has become a daily routine. Another thing that surprised me is when she talks about the small boy that was killed during an American raid. He was killed yet they found nothing. That is something we don't generally hear about in the US, because it's advertised over here as we're doing something so great helping those who have fallen and been through war, yet we're just causing more chaos and trouble. Women cannot even walk out by themselves. They have to be accompanied everywhere they go. Imagine living like this, because I surely can't.

Different Perspective

I really enjoyed reading Riverbend's insight on the war. The fact that she is a young woman makes it even more interesting because I'm always used to men writing about wars. The first blog that caught my attention was "Another Day…" because it highlights America's perspective on people from Iraq. Riverbend expresses her anger that many people do not believe she's really from Iraq because she has access to the internet and she knows how to use a computer. It really opened my eyes to how America's judgement of people from Iraq is usually completely wrong. Riverbend is almost mocking their perceptions because she is living proof that people from Iraq are intelligent and can have their own thoughts, expressions and can use a computer. For a while when I was little I was trained to think that America was more intelligent than other countries, but as I grew up and met people from different countries I realized that we were more alike than we were different. The next blog that really caught my attention was "Tired.". Riverbend talks about a boy who was 10 or 11 years old who got killed during an American raid. She expresses her anger about how people never mention those kinds of things. She is frustrated that innocent children get killed, but no one has any answers or anything to say about. It really shifted my perspective and made me realize how true that was. I never hear about the innocent children that are killed in Iraq, it's almost like America knows it's wrong, but they don't want to admit it. Riverbend also elaborates on the raids and how American's think that people from Iraq are ungrateful because the raids are supposed to help the people of Iraq. But Riverbend brings up such a good point and that point is that the raids prove that they are no longer free and safe in their own homes since a raid can happen at any point in time. I cannot imagine how that must feel and the anxiety it must bring to the people, especially children. I'm really glad I read this blog and got a chance to see a different perspective on the war.

"Life is not fair, death is even less fair..."

The "Baghdad Burning" blog really caught my attention more than I expected it to. By looking around the blog, I decided to start with her very first post, entitled "The Beginning...". What was a simple introduction of herself and what the blog will be, she ends with this phrase that slightly took my breath away: "I survived the war. That's all you need to know. It's all that matters these days anyway." It seems that when people come back from the war as a survivor, they are mostly looked at as a hero to others. To them however, all that matters is that they are here to see another day, not what they could have lost their life for.
Looking forward to a few days later, a blog post titled "Tired" also caught my attention. She is telling her readers about her struggle with sleeping, which can be very common in any person. Reading further on, you learn that she is struggling to listen for gun shots and tanks. Something that would not normally be spoken about my a war veteran up front, she is letting her readers into her deep, dark thoughts that she is struggling with while being back home. While this blog does not necessarily change my thoughts on soldiers after the war, it does make me realize how much they truly can hold on to inside and not let others know about. Maybe this blog was created to let out her thoughts that she knew people would think she was crazy if she told them in person. I always have given war veterans the utmost respect, and this blog just makes me realize even more how strong they truly are, emotionally and physically.

For God and Country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo

Wars are about fighting the enemy and back in the day, the enemy was very clear and was usually running towards you trying to kill you. With advancement in technology like ammunition, artillery, and basic body armor, people are becoming harder to kill. So we make bombs and even bigger bullets and so on. Also now we are not fighting for land we are fighting for different causes. In the case of Zero Dark Thirty, Americans were fighting the war on terror by locating and taking Osama Bin Laden. In which case since we were not fighting a full nation and only fighting people who all look alike, you could not tell if the person next to you was your enemy or was an ally. Using tools like a signal search to find the cell phone that was being used to make calls and then eventually using drone to look into the compound. Woman played a role in the movie by either being the intelligence behind the search or just a wife going for a gun and was eventually shot. As we move on to different types of warfare we may not know who is the enemy in the future. It could be someone who has a vendetta out for whatever country in his or her mind. Or it could be the person sitting in a cubical at the CIA Headquarters who is just fed up with life and thinks they can take on the world. Also with the ever-advancing minds of the youth now a day, kids as young as 12 are hacking the computers of federal businesses and are out doing the men and women that have graduated MIT. Which the phrase of “if you can’t beat them, hire them” comes into play and which is probably the reason why we have so many computer hackers. So if you can’t beat them…. Destroy them works just as well.

Zero Dark Thirty

When 9/11 occurred, I was in first grade. I remember everyone running around and rushing to evacuate my class as soon as possible. I remember people running in the streets, panicking. Looking back on it now, it seems unreal. Being a New Yorker, terrorism in America is a subject that hits close to home. This war began as a way to retaliate for the attack on the United States and because what Osama Bin Laden did to us was so gruesome, our country feels the need to respond in acts of the same magnitude. The film Zero Dark Thirty offers a look inside the operation of taking down Osama Bin Laden and ultimately ending the war. The movie doesn’t hold back, even having a torture scene at the very beginning. The way America treated the attack on the World Trade Center was in a “you hit us, we hit you” type of fashion. I’m not saying it wasn’t completely out of the question to counterattack, I understand where the government was coming from in this situation. However, it just created more problems. We got stuck in a war that is still going on. A new age of racism has blossomed. This type of violence in order to resolve an issue is then being shown to Americans through the media. It creates an unwarranted hatred for another race and religion. It also teaches the younger generation who may not completely understand the war or even have been there on September 11th that this is how The United States deals with it’s conflicts. 

Terrorist Warfare

There are many was in which war has changed in the age of terrorism. Before you would know who your enemy was. You would be able to find the enemy just by them wearing the other uniform and that was all you needed to engage and destroy them, but today you need to jump through so many hoops to get authorization to use lethal force. You first have to find the enemy who knows the rules we play by and knows how to take advantage of these rules. They know as long as they keep their name clean that we can not engage. They know that we can not engage them unless they commit a hostile act first and they use this to their advantage by being able to walk up right beside you looking innocent and obtaining information they can later use against you or just use suicide tactics to take you out right then and there and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. They are able to do this because they don’t wear a uniform, they blend in with the innocent civilians who are just trying to live their lives the best they can. Also the technology of war has changed a little instead of picking up radio transmissions and deciphering them, we just use wire taps and satellite recon to observe and hopefully identify a target so a strike can be authorized. The terrorism also feeds off the media who just feeds the fire by airing their attacks, it is just like a toddler breaking something to get attention. They can not get attention if you ignore their attacks and not let them instill a sense of fear amongst the  populous. But this is not all that new, it is just a form of total warfare which is probably the oldest type of warfare. It is to not just attack the enemies military but to attack everyone they hold dear to them, and is the most effective form of warfare.

Racial Warfare

        Comparing modern war on terrorism with all previous wars based on the movie “Zero Dark Thirty”, I think the key difference is the involvement of intelligence and the random of detention of people with brown skin. It is not that previous wars did not involve intelligence, but the amount of agents that are working for targeting and strategic calculation is more than the soldiers who actually execute the plan. Like in the movie, there is only one seal squad and one single operation that carries out the plan, but the plan itself took more than 129 day to be completed; which unlike previous wars, the soldiers mostly did the job, with minor strategic calculations, and focus more on reacting to whatever happened to each individuals or teams. The other aspect is the racial aspect, the US only kill Arabs and the Al Queda only kill westerners, these activities only increase hatred and nothing was actually accomplished. “One is killed because another was killed”, said by Dr. Sun, the founder of the republic of China(Taiwan), this saying could be extended for racial issues, in previous wars, one is killed, and hatred grew in a limited amount of people that knew the dead person. However, in war on terrorism, hatred grew in a large entity of people, such as Arabs and westerners; not that these two races are programmed by someone or some government, but in terms of human nature, specifically favoritism, the same race tend to have more sympathy toward their own kind; hence, when seeing their own kind got killed, regardless of religion, beliefs or nationality, one would hate whoever did that, and in war on terrorism, a specific race is hated. 

Wars on Ideologies

Terrorism has become a more and more prominent method of warfare in the 20th and 21st centuries. While terror has been used as a weapon since the beginning of war, the rise of terror tactics being used by radical Islamist groups has risen to a unique level not seen before in modern history. Likewise, a superpower's response to an assault by extremists is also something not before seen, especially on a global scale. Massive invasions against other armies are becoming less and less common in the nuclear age, and now it tends to be a state government military fighting opposition with an ideology. The point of terrorism is that it can happen anywhere at any time, so therefore the coordination and sophistication needed by a group to carry out an attack is complicated, as is tracking this communication.

This is a colossal change from what the military spent hundreds (thousands) of years perfecting; warfare between armies. Land combat, air forces, tank warfare, etc etc, generals and tactics. Now, it's tracking down social networks, large families, and very specific individuals on the other side of the planet from a totally different cultural background. It's intelligence gathering and specific strikes, theoretically. Special forces and drones are gaining prominence in this new era. Wars between nation states are expensive and painful for the world, while simultaneously radical ideologies are using violence on a global scale with terrible results.

The result is a War on Terror, a war on an open-ended ideology with no clear beginning or middle or end, that has consequences we can't foresee. It's a different era.

Zero Dark Thirty

So Zero dark thirty made me sick literally. Like I have heard torturing and I have always tried to stay away from watching movies like this. I mean violence is typical in war and I guess necessary as a method of obtaining information but I also find it  crazy as to how people will use violence or justify their use of violence in wars. I mean I’m not too much into war or know a lot about it but the use of violence has definitely increased in the age of terrorism. I guess in a way I always thought about war being just plain fighting like soldiers shooting at each other (this may be a naïve way of viewing war but hey that’s what I thought it was) and watching this movie allowed me to understand a totally different perspective.  To associate religion with certain actions is disturbing simply because while all religions might not agree on certain things, most religions do not promote violence, killing and so on. I mean although I’m not Muslim I’m sure without an ounce of doubt that there is nothing with in the Qur’an that states murdering a mass amount of people is okay, and then to claim it’s in the name of Allah…ahh that’s just a tad bit crazy to me.  It was very disturbing watching this movie I mean you hear of this stuff going on but I guess to actually put a picture to it was very unsettling. I was kind of scared for Maya throughout the whole movie.

Zero Dark Thirty

I've never really kept up with the wars going on because when 9/11 happened and America invaded Iraq I was too young to really understand. So much misconstrued information has been put out there that there is no clear story as to what happened. I do believe the US had a right to fight back because of the terrorist attack. Terrorism is a horrible thing and is usually done by a group associated with a certain country or religion. But the thing a lot of people don’t realize is that it is not the whole country or religion that is to blame. It’s extremist. And just as Zero Dark Thirty showed, many just associate color or religion to a terrorist act. For example when Maya was leaving her house and she was shot at just because she was white, not because they had knowledge of her being in the CIA.

Torture seems like a very common thing during war and trying to find out information. They tear someone down physically hoping to break them into caring about only their own well-being, changing their loyalty in hopes of saving their own life. Terrorism does not seem to care who is harmed, as long as a message is received. With this war, crucial people would give up their lives just to kill Americans, whether they were civilians or the leaders of America.

Zero Dark Thirty

Throughout the history of time, warfare has developed and evolved. It is not what you see in movies, with one side of men charging at the other side. Warfare has become slick and sneaky. Guerilla warfare tactics of popping up to blow a quick and fatal blow to the enemy is common. While watching Zero Dark Thirty, it was clear to see that it is hard to distinguish friend and enemy in battle. For the soldiers over seas, they must be trained to determine whether or not someone is good or bad, and sometimes their decision takes too long and it can cost them their lives. I believe that more and more soldiers will get psychological disorders coming back from war because war has turned into a mind game. Our soldiers sometimes do not know who is good, who is bad, and they do not know when they could be attacked next. Guerrilla warfare is not a new tactic, and we have been known to use such tactics as well. Evidence is shown in the capturing and killing of Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. The movie's main character, Maya has dedicated her entire service time to finding the Al Qaeda leader. Throughout the movie, I got a nervous feeling about what was going to happen next to her and her plan, even though historically, I knew what would happen. The tactics of warfare that have evolved throughout the war on terrorism have proven to be effective physically, but for those involved; the emotional and psychological risk seems even more effective. While reading Stick Soldiers, Hugh Martin gave an example of how this tactic of warfare impacted him even after the war. He explains that while on the road back home he thinks there could be a possibility of an IED, even though he knows it is a ridiculous thought.  By reading and watching about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is clear to see the changes towards future warfare tactics.

Violence as Validation

I was never the type of person to keep track of wars because honestly, they scared the heck out of me! Violence is not my thing so I can't really say how much war has changed in the age of terrorism because I tried to stay away from watching things about the war or hearing about the war and my grandmaw wanted to keep me away from violence as much as possible. As I got older though I learned more and more about terrorism and 9/11 and it really confused me and this is mostly because of how much the terrorists would use their own religion to validate their actions. A lot of that is shown in Zero Dark Thirty, but I also see these kinds of validations happening outside of war, for example, cults. I'm not that much of a religious person, but my grandmaw is. If there's one thing I've learned from religion, religion classes, and my grandmaw it is that God probably did not intend on people using his word to validate horrible things such as murders,torture, or cults. I think God wanted more positives actions to come from his teachings rather than negative ones. But that may just be my opinion and like I said I'm not that much of a religious person. It's ridiculous and selfish that people really think that this is what their religion wanted them to do because I highly doubt that. Maybe they need to re-interpret their religion? But I do know that there are some people who do follow a different interpretation of their terrorists religion, but I'm just talking about the terrorist's in this particular blog. As for the changes of war in the age of terrorism, from what I do know, I think a lot has stayed the same and just more information came to the light as technology progressed. I think war has always been brutal and terrorism is just going with the flow of the pattern.

Terrorism and Torture

The beginning of the movie Zero Dark Thirty, there were quite a bit of gruesome torture scenes. I’ve read and heard about many methods of torturing people from history at different regions and cultures. However, it still did not prepare me for the scenes that I watched in the movie. Even animals did not deserve to be treated like that. The prisoner was deprived of food, water, and even sleep. I guess I can see what the CIA must have thought when they decided to torture people to extract information because terrorism causes a lot more harms and more civilians’ deaths are involved.

The purpose of terrorism is to destroy the morale of a nation by the random murder of innocent people. Randomness is the crucial feature of terrorist activity. This showed throughout the movie. Random shootings and bombings happened so frequently that it put people in constant fear for their live. Ordinary citizens are killed and no defense is offered. Terrorism communicates the most extreme and brutal of intentions. Essentially, it is the mass murder of the population under attack and focuses on people whose natural existence has been radically devalued. Terror is the totalitarian form of war and politics, and it shatters the war convention. It breaks across moral limits beyond which no further limitation seems possible. In other words, terrorists just kill others just because they are different politically or religiously.

            However, whether torture is a good way to extract information is another question. The type of torture that we saw in Zero Dark Thirty is called interrogational torture. Its purpose is known to the victim, which is the victim’s performance of some actions which he can perform and this performance will end the torture. I guess this was how the CIA used to justify those tortures inflicted on the prisoner.

Zero Dark Thirty

War has changed greatly since the age of terrorism, but this is not the first era. Terrorism has existed for a long time and this type of guerrilla warfare is not a new idea. Fighting a war on foreign territory where the "terrorists" have lived and defended their home for centuries isn't necessarily the best idea. However when Osama Bin Laden decided to attack the United States of America he opened up a furious can of whoop-ass on himself. One that would not cease until he was six-feet under the ground. In Zero Dark Thirty, Maya our main character is dedicated to find where little Osama is hiding. Throughout the movie we see how Islam is abused by the extremists to exploit their own agendas. It is true that Islam is not a bad religion, it is like any other faith, it stresses humility and service but these terrorists twist it into a warring and blood thirsty faith. When you fight against terrorists it is not a straight up fight. Most terrorists aren't dressed as soldiers waving flags representing their nation. They might look like civilians and blend in with the crowd. We have to go looking for them, and when they look for us it is not in the open, it is behind closed doors with them trying to stab our soldiers in the back. They cannot really be blamed for this type of warfare though because if you had to take on the United States military and you were just a backwards poor nation in the middle-east how would you take the US head on? You can't. Unfortunately terrorism has had a big impact on many young people in these areas and they still recruit men to fight against us. In order to keep civilian casualties low we cannot unleash the full force of our military, there has been too much death already.

Religion Vs. Politics (Zero Dark Thirty)

Zero Dark Thirty redefined the meaning of war for me. The whole quest of finding Osama Bin Laden, which took 10 years, portrayed the terrifying underlying complications with government and Al-Qaeda. As I am Muslim, I know how peaceful Islam is. By seeing all the terrorism and bloodshed in this movie while taking the name of “Allah” in order to perform the act of terrorism exemplifies how Islam is being used over and over again in order to gain all the corrupting powers for Al-Qaeda and its corrupted “so called” Islamic leaders.

Once of the scene that stayed affected me the most in the entire movie was when there was a suicide bomb attack in Camp Chapman. Before the attack, the only thing he said was “Allah-Hu-Akbar,” which means “God is the Greatest.” Being a faithful follower of Islam, it is amazing to me that how these Islamic groups are mass murdering, destroying countries with the name of Allah. As all these Islamic leaders proclaim that they have memorized every section of Qur’an, which is an ultimate lie, because it is clearly written in there that murders, lies, adultery, all of them will cause great consequences in the day of judgment.   

These leaders have portrayed this peaceful religion in a way that now whenever a bomb attack occurs anywhere in the world; the Muslims are always to be the first one to blame. These leaders preaches to respect women yet they treat them with the most brutality, cruelty, and even sometimes kill them because in their opinion they haven’t done what their “Man” has asked them to do.

Zero Dark Thirty is a great example to see what corrupted leaders can perform in the name of their religion and kill thousands and thousands of innocent people while believing that they are acting upon what has God asked them to do. This movie shows how extremist Islamic leaders are capable of just to remain in power and the only one to be in power.

Making the nighttime blush

Just for clarification it is M16A2 not M-16A2 but that is a different argument for later.

“M-16A2 Assault Rifle”

Martin’s poem, M-16A2 Assault Rifle, focused on every small detail of the rifle that he possibly could. Martin focuses on how he cleans the rifle and how he holds the rifle. He almost sounds like how a US Marine would if you asked them to talk about their rifle. But then again a Marine would just start reciting the “Rifleman’s Creed”. Martin talks about the rifle like as if it is a member of his family, which is understandable since he doesn’t have any family in Iraq as he is there. The poem more specifically focuses on the mundane of war life, which is something only O’Brien has talked about in his stories. At the end of the poem Martin takes a different turn where he says he rather hang up his rifle than to get the slightest bit of dirt on it. Which Martin makes an association to the shooting that he calls making the night blush. That is a wonderful association because bullets being fired at night does look like red burst in the darkness.

“The Stick Soldiers”

Martin did a fabulous job of really capturing the difference of opinions that Americans and Iraqis had for this war. When he was reading the American children’s letters he described the pictures that they drew along with some kids sending what they wanted for Christmas and to send best wishes to those soldiers. Even though the children of Iraq pictures on the concrete walls of what they wanted to soldiers to do or not really threats. The children of Iraq only wanted the American soldiers dead or just gone. Which is understandable because who really wants a bunch of soldiers to be around busting in their home door? Hugh Martin chooses the small details to bring out which is a good thing because the small details are what really show description in the stories.