Iraq

Things in Iraq are deteriorating,
And I can’t forestall images of Vietnam from invading my consciousness,
Flashpoint Fallujah,
Might as well be Saigon,
But instead of monks,
Alighting themselves in balls of gasoline,
Its clerics ordering backlash,
Against the American dream,
Freedom,
Cry freedom,
Let virtue knock out vice,
Proclaim victorious,
Democracy,
With out bullets,
Instill respect,
Not fear,
Each and every day more killing,
More violence,
More suffering,
From wayward decisions,
And backroom wrangling,
Save oppression and occupation,
Remove them from the lexicon,
Let freedom reign,
Rather than bullets fly;
How would we react,
If someone infiltrated our homeland?
Teach Iraqi’s fundamentals for life,
Rather than fundamentalism,
Teach them the glory of choice,
But not at the barrel of a gun,
It didn’t work in Vietnam,
Why would it work in the powder keg of the Middle East>
I pray for the brave souls,
Fighting their presidents war,
For their safe return,
And a life not haunted by images of liberation,
I pray for Iraqi’s,
That THEY can save their nation,
I pray for us all,
That one day,
The values that we preach,
Become those that we practice,
I hope and pray,
These words represent a relic,
Of a time long past,
To never return.

SDM

Context - Written almost one year after the war began