The Japanese Imperial Army’s
mistreatment of POWs
during World War II was a war crime.
The killing of Japanese civilians
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by the United States Army Air Force
was a geopolitical strategy.
Daily, on the tv screen, out of the sky
suffering comes: dust, flames, detritus,
outcries – and the living burdened, fleeing…
…Myanmar, Baghdad, Grozny, the fall
of Paris – long lines of people south
on the roads through the fields of the Beauce,
trying to scatter at the siren sound
of a Stuka bomber beginning its dive…
…as armies retreat or advance, casual
atrocities, private massacres
randomly uncovered, indicted,
transmogrified if necessary
by statecraft’s convenient amnesia…
I used to believe that if there had been
24/7 Live Updates from
No-Man’s-Land on the Western Front
or the VC tunnels in the forests
of Vietnam those conflicts would not have
lasted a week – but now I am not so sure
for someone, somewhere is gaining glory,
telling lies, making money out of this
the simple immorality of war.
By David Selzer