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

And now for a word from our...

Saddam –
Dan Rather –
Thank you CBS,
I’m pleading for the truth
and you offer me a prelude to war
brought to me by General Motors..
Saddam come now,
oil, oil, oink, oink,
we all know,
use religion as an excuse,
a prelude to war.
Many years from now,
on a different couch, cigar in hand,
I’ll remember what life was like before the second war in Iraq –
This time the Coalition of one;
THE MIGHTY DOLLAR (GREENBACK, AMERICAN)
the bottom line –
How may will die? –
That day,
cigar in hand,
I guarantee I will know.
Two evils no lesser;
Results different yet same –
Gun to head Choose!
C'est la vie circa today!

SDM

Hippo Crite

I’m now witnessing the rhetoric of a supposed spiritual leader: Pat Robertson is lecturing his audience of the 700 Club as to the appropriateness of French involvement in post war Iraq. From upon high his spiritual throne he uses words like outrage to define any potential French involvement in any reconstruction or Oil contracts. The separation of church and state seems beyond the reaches of a corporate televangelist. Hypocrite. Do you think that God is outraged by France, or is that Freedom, has the official name change taken place? I am blown away by his (Robertson’s) moral authority used in this way – Furthermore, as he stands in front of Operation Prayer Shield, a clever bulletin board of pictures of soldiers deployed overseas with weapons – Is this what we have come to? Church and state, propaganda machines at least on the 700 Club it seems.

Shame!

SDM

KIA

The newswoman speaks of today’s reports with a matter of factness that seems to suggest absolute awareness. Yet I wonder if the talking head can decipher the truth of our current state through the supposed objective reporting she duteously relays. I wonder if her mind, like mine, draws the obvious parallels between a suicide bombing report with five American soldiers dying in Iraq and the guerilla tactics which so ravaged the American war machine in full splendor in Vietnam. Obvious! Yet, how many are willing and able to draw that conclusion? At the beginning of Gulf War II, as is common of our western world, our arrogance, save that, the arrogance of the Coalition of the Willing, caused widespread belief that this war was going to be a cake walk. That all Iraqi’s would just roll over and play dead –

Tell that to the families of the roughly 55 killed in action this week.

SDM

Update Since I wrote this more than 3100 more soldiers have died and approximately 100 - 150,000 Iraqi's.

Networked Fear

Ominous –
Looming –
Impending War –
Are you frightened?

Has CNN
or NBC
or CBC
or BBC convinced you of the need to go to war –
To shatter a nation already in shambles –
Incidentally one of the wealthiest Oil nations in the world.
Did I mention with a leader (whom no one really chose except for the United States),
sounds eerily familiar,
especially to the people who elected Gore
and ended up with Bush.

We’re hearing about drones and no fly zones,
seeing controlled and contrived images
as approved by the very real censors of Iraqi’s,
just like you or I digging trenches outside their homes,
on their streets –
Can you imagine that?

And I don’t mean city workers –
I mean can you imagine digging a trench in Toronto,
Ottawa or
Montreal,
New York,
Los Angeles or
Washington.

Trenches!
We’re hearing again,
about blanket bombers from another war –
Sorry conflict, not so long ago –

What do you think the Vietnamese are thinking of the B – 52’s active use again?
We’re hearing of B2B’s and I don’t mean business to business –
F – 117’s, Apaches and lest we forget batteries of Patriots –
Untold (literally untold for the cost of War is never as neat as Balance Sheets and Profit Loss statements)
Billions will be spent fighting to depose one man –
One man and a few of his cronies, is anyone else afraid,
what happens when the dog scratches –
your bound to come up with fleas –
Believe me – No amount of duct tape is going to keep a determined flea out!

These are but a few thoughts on a senseless war which could be but one mans blood –

SDM

A Whore for an Uncle

Uncle Sam wants you! Believe that is true. From his lofty position of relatively unopposed stately greatness Uncle Sam wants you – Absolutely –

He wants your hearts and minds so that he can effect regime change for the will of his nations is a power unimaginable. He wants your sons and daughters to raise up in his arms so he can teach them how to kill in the name of peace to once again make the world safe for democracy. He wants you to drive your SUV to work taking the long way home. He wants you to live like normal with out truly knowing what normal is. He wants you to write a check or pay in cash your taxes so that your sons and daughters can have a potentially lethal one way ticket to a desert graveyard half a world away – So that he can send through the air like an eagle stalking its prey, B – 52’s, F – 16’s and A – 10’s while his mechanized tigers draw ever nearer to a foreign capital.

He wants you to walk proudly with your head held high, he wants you to watch CNN while your sons and daughters ride highway nine towards an intelligence reported red line. A red line indeed, red like blood, soon to flow most assuredly as do the Tigris and the Euphrates. But in his zealousness he’ll be hasty in sanitizing the message even more, no matter what station you turn to he’ll ensure that from under his thumb you won’t see your sons and daughters slaughtered, but you’ll see Iraq’s sons and daughters. You’d think Uncle Sam got the point when Uncle Ho and company experientially showed him and his generals the power of people fighting for their own homeland rather than foreign policy and national interest.

No matter the talking head or the slight difference in the message Uncle Sam wants to make sure its his message complete with new video and damage assessments. At home, Uncle Sam’s wants you to support the troops. He wants you to allow the erosion of tradition even in the 7th inning stretch so that the enemy feels the might of his will, with God bless America each and every night.

He wants you to buy duct tape, plastic sheeting, gas masks, chemical suits and terror alerts because Uncle Sam knows the repose to his war will be felt close to home and it already has – Sons and daughters dying while Snickers we consume; While we should be paying attention to the snickers of the globe – But don’t.

Uncle Sam wants you to buy, then buy some more, consumers all missing the score: Good guys 1, bad guys 1 – Its all the same in this age old game.

Uncle Sam’s your friend, he’ll shelter you, don’t worry my friends, he knows what to do – Doesn’t he? So Uncle Same should know September 11th was just for show. To let the world know that the ivory tower you used to sit, no matter how large your arsenal can always be hit and will.

He wants us to consume, to buy and sell, he wants our sons and daughters to pay the price, he wants us to believe he’s nice, but come now, this seems so much, lets call a spade a spade – Uncle Sam is a greedy bastard and more like the drunk uncle bob we all know and have except he’s drunk on consumption and power while your sons and daughters die by the hour.

Uncle Sam, you greedy self serving prick and our collective conscience is so very sick and we’re tired of the lies, personally I’m not buying anymore, so away from me: Uncle Whore!

SDM

"Liberators?"

You have to admit that in this age of information we seem to be getting short changed. Propaganda and rhetoric in this time of war seem to have taken the place of information. For example, the well crafted, public relations, “Code Name” for this ongoing coalition of the willing action is “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. For months leading up to this war, Rumsfeld, Bush, Powell, Cheney and Rice told the world that Iraqi military would roll over and play dead. It hasn’t. We were told that the people of Iraq would welcome the coalition as liberators. As yet, that remains to be seen, perhaps when the regime has truly folded that will be the case? Perhaps! At this moment Rumsfeld is on the screen, on the street in DC, asked about the progress of the coalition the first words he said of coalition success; “We’ve secured the southern oil fields.”

I’ve tried hard not to be cynical, tried hard not to buy the conspiracy theory line. Unfortunately, its beginning to seem as if we’ve been witnessing and buying, hook, “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Line; “Coalition of the Willing” and the unfortunate sinker; “We are liberators.”

Its quite sad for me to say as a lifelong friend of the United States of America, the land of liberty, the center of the free world, democracies great proponent, that it appears this mission should be called;

“Operation Earthen Prize.”

I hope history reflects on the aftermath of this war; I pray for us all!

SDM

_________

context - written just after America invaded

Choose - Live or Die

10 minutes to midnight,
what will happen when the clock strikes twelve,
will Saddam’s maniacal Cinderella tale come to an end,
on the screen I just saw,
the B – 52’s getting ready,
on the runway,
fueled,
Is it time to go?
8 minutes to midnight,
is it time for blanket bombing to begin?
7 minutes to midnight,
at least in Baghdad;
the coalition of the willing,
about to drop bombs,
defense contractors pockets filling,
6 minutes now,
what are we to think?
5 minutes,
I’d really like a drink,
My mind wandering,
I’d really like to know,
Are the B – 52’s just for show,
Ask the Vietnamese,
They’ll tell us true,
4 minutes now,
oil fires in Basra await,
3 minutes,
surrender or fight,
2 minutes,
expedition in Iraq two hours ago,
12 hours early,
1 minute:
Choose –
Live or die?

SDM

______________________________

Context: Written the night the US invaded Iraq