The Price of Iraqi Freedom?

Missiles cruised from hundreds of miles away,
toward phantom targets that intelligence thought was real,
the earth trembled as mechanized dinosaurs stormed through sovereign territory –
belonging to the people and not Saddam,
yet it seems they paid the price –
TWICE!

Ferociously for decades, a tyrant ran the show,
stacking the deck with cronies,
if you can call those in perpetual fear for their lives cronies.
Industry –
His –
Oil –
His –
Palaces –
His.
All Iraqis paid a very big price.

The mechanized dinosaurs rapidly advanced and watched cities lit up from the sky,
Iraqi’s initially shocked and awed that yet again,
no matter the intention,
their empire risen from the sand through oil stood shattered.
Now tattered,
confusion abounding
I hear the sounds of demonstration
and I stand confounded from the lessons I’ve learned
from a short lived war that still rages in the hearts and minds of all ages –
In Iraq and indeed around the world.

SDM