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Combat, The Middle East, And War Poetry With Stan Coerr

Poet and former Marine and discusses the strategy, history and emotion behind war.

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On the last episode of The Federalist Radio Hour of 2015, we were joined by Stan Coerr, author, poet and Marine. Coerr is the author of Rubicon The Poetry of War and shared his perspective on the current military strategy against radical islam, combat, history, the Middle East, and the inspiration for his poetry.

Coerr said there is no place to look for what winning looks like in the Middle East. “This is an islamist, fundamentalist, transnational, sort of clearinghouse for jihad. This is not a coherent enemy,” he said. “This is not a place you can go and a country which you can attack and a city which you can destroy and people you can kill in order to achieve what you would call a victory.”

After saving his journal from a burning tent in a fire that destroyed half of their camp in Kuwait, Coerr used his writing as the basis for his memoir and poetry. “I thought well, ‘If I was close enough to get this journal, then I must need to do something with it, which I did.’”

“What’s interesting about combat is that it’s the most elemental of human emotions all happening at once,” he said. “It is hatred and fear and love all happening at the same time, in the same place, with the same people.”

Thank you to all our listeners and subscribers this year and we look forward to more radio in 2016.

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