Episode 10 - Brian Turner Part 3

In part three of my epic conversation with Brian Turner, we begin by discussing how the Soldier Poet bears witness, 
and how ideas of complicity distinguish this from other kinds of war writing. 

We then moved on to:

• what inspired Turner to write about war
• the stories being told by Iraqis about the war
• the war as perceived by the Generals and soldiers on the ground
• Mosul, the media and bearing witness
• how the war will be assessed by historians
• drones, video games and technology
• war films and the reality of film
• war, boredom and the intensity of the moment
• how poetry investigates the moment
• suicide and stress of war
• what Turner can and can't talk about
• 'the war has a tombstone over it'
• why the Iraq war has not ended
• Turner's own return home
• did you suffer any post-traumatic stress
• 'If you're going to send people off to war, they are going to come back with baggage'
• Veterans in need of help
• how we treat our veterans reflects the health of our nation