A Just War Analysis

                “A Just War” is a poem written by the anti-war activist David Roberts in 1999, describing the conflict in Kosovo during the late 20^th century in six simple lines. The poem has no distinct rhyme scheme, using an ABCDEFD format. Throughout the poem the speaker speaks from a first person perspective, addressing an enemy, most likely Yugoslavian forces judging by the threat of retaliation made by the speaker, marking the speaker as an Albanian or Croatian civilian/insurgent. The threat of retaliation seems to be promising retaliation for the slaughter of Albanian/Croatian civilians by the Yugoslavian forces, which are considered war crimes by war crime laws.

The third line of the poem seems to be mocking the leaders of both sides of the conflict, both of which had made claims similar to “This is a just war”, making the speaker’s disgust at the claim apparent, with the following line making it clear the speaker wishes for nothing but revenge for the slaughter of innocent civilians. The tone of the speaker is consistent with nearly all retaliatory threats made during times of war. The final line seems to be meant to be disturbing, with the sentiment expressed by the speaker being that he/she is willing to sacrifice everything to exact revenge on the Yugoslavian forces. Surprisingly, the Kosovo War was actually one of the occasions where WWIII could have broken out, thanks to a conflict between occupying NATO forces concerned as to the war crimes taking place in the area, and the Russian Federation attempting to assist Serbia. Had conflict broken out, the speaker may very well have had their desired conclusion to the conflict.