General, Your Tank Bertolt Brecht

‘General, Your Tank’ is a famous anti-war poem written by Bertolt Brecht, who is a great German playwright and poet and also a committed political activist. He always speaks about the greatness of the common man. In this anti-war poem he speaks about the greatness of an ordinary soldier who is killed in the battlefield and the General who does not do any work is glorified! The poem is a satire on army generals and their wars. Brecht’s poetry is famous for their pithiness, variety and choice of themes; it is simple, direct and sharp.

A military tank is a heavy vehicle which can destroy forests and kill hundreds of innocent men. It is indeed very powerful and is used in the war field. But it has a defect. This gigantic machine is useless without the help of a driver. A soldier must drive this vehicle. Similarly bomber planes are used in the battle. It can fly at a lightning speed and drop bombs on the cities killing thousands of innocent people. But it has also a defect. It needs a mechanic.  These powerful machines are juxtaposed against a poor soldier who drives these vehicles. The narrator uses irony as the figure of speech in every stanza. The word ‘defect’ is the core irony. In short soldiers do all sorts of work in the battle. Finally these soldiers are killed and the battle is won by the army general. The credit of victory goes to him who sits idle enjoying the fun of war where thousands of young soldiers are butchered daily! He is glorified and the victory goes to the general who does not do any work except make wars. The irony of the poem is that there are three ‘machines’ here. These machines are useless without the help of a poor soldier. They are the tank, the bomber plane and the general.  The general is also an inhuman machine who has no brain. If he were wise, he would not start wars, instead he would solve problems by means of discussion or dialogues.

The poem is addressed to the General and the poet warns him that soldier is useful in all fields of war. But remember that these young soldiers can think. One day these soldiers command the general to stop wars because it is inhuman and wicked. War means destruction of human civilization. Human civilization can grow in an atmosphere of peace and love.  Soldiers are the beautiful flowers in the garden of human civilization. They cannot be destroyed or butchered. But now these youngsters are cruelly killed in the name of patriotism and nationalism and religion. Everywhere the top leaders are glorified and the poor soldiers are butchered again and again.

As Wilfred Owen, the great English anti-war poet said, ‘ human beings are born to love and be loved, but a soldier is born to kill and be killed. It is high time that war should be replaced by dialogues and conferences because we are all civilized people and we can think.       Kjt/-16-11-2018