I Could Have Had a Nazi
I wish I could have had a Nazi.
Clear and present danger to the civilized world.
An embodiment of evil in a state-sponsored uniform.
An honest and necessary fight.
To fight in the open.
And to fear the capability of an enemy,
Who doesn’t just get lucky.
Who doesn’t run and hide behind women and children. Instead I got the Taliban.
They fight in bedsheets and sandals,
Behind children as shields.
For I-Don’t-Know-What. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have gone.
I just wish that they were Nazis.This poem has a lot of truth to it as people don't really like the unknown. When facing an enemy, they want an enemy that is concrete as possible. The last thing people want is an enemy with no shape to it. One doesn't know how to prepare when you don't know who your enemy is.
I never know which poems people will like. A lot of people seem to like this one, especially people who have served in Afghanistan. This is a pervasive feeling that I would expect a lot of fighters in asymmetric warfare experience. But I say I never know which poems people will like because I almost didn't even keep this one. It's true and maybe that's why it connects.
Did we create the Nazis in the same way we have contributed to the creation of radical Islam, including the Taliban?
Poverty gave rise to the Nazi party's popularity. That, and lots and lots of preexisting racism.