Nicholas Jones20 Jun 2005

This is about the post-September 11th attack on Afghanistan (before the world realised Iraq was next on the list) so it can't be another Afghanistan, unless you're referring to the Soviet invasion in the 1980s (which is actually a very neat and ironic parallel). And the poem doesn't say it's a new Vietnam, it only says that that is what the media said, which is true. In fact this dates from the period after the invasion when it looked like things might actually work out. I like to think this poem still has some resonance three years later, but you'll have to think harder about the historical context.