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

Future Concession

I find it troubling that as I write these words
I am curious as to how I might receive them many years from now –
Am I just an ideological kid dreaming of the way the world should be
rather than living the way it is –
This thought worries me;
systems like mind sets come and go –
Is it time for the 2nd fall of Rome;
I am not some nay sayer
nor am I particularly a hawk,
I do not long for war,
nor am I so foolish as to think that in the way this world currently is
sometimes military force is justified,
but in this case,
at this time,
why kill hundreds,
thousands,
tens of thousands or Iraqi’s and Americans
when all the world really needs from Iraq is Saddam's head
and I’m sure most Iraqi’s would be happy to give it;
so Why not give diplomacy a chance
without a gun to innocent Iraqi’s heads
yet a fully loaded one on Saddam's?

SDM

Hegemony

Do I see?
Do you?
Are we past the point of no return?
Does it really truly exist anymore –
The point of no return?
The question:
Why war?
That question must be answered absolutely and without fail.
We need not ask why peace as our survival instinct answers that one –
But why war?
So I can drive my S.U.V. or heat my home?
Why now?
Lots of questions that should be asked,
but aren’t!
I do not believe that we should appease,
as we’ve done before,
but what is it that we’re truly afraid of?
Saddam?
His weapons?
Would he wreak terror and destruction?
Or is he just trying to change the balance of power?
Is the United States practicing brinkmanship on this one –
Painting a picture,
of oil when in fact they’re afraid at the highest levels of something far more significant – like the erosion of hegemonic control…

Curious?

SDM

Rhetoic

Coalition of the Willing;
At one time 12 years ago, perhaps,
under different circumstances,
where Saddam had been the aggressor,
Small nations,
New Nations,
Needy nations,
Lining up, standing to be counted with their hands out,
A little aid here and a little aid there:
Coalition of the willing indeed.
Is Saddam a criminal? A tyrant? Dictator? Bastard? Terrorist?
No, No answer necessary – All rhetorical – Back for a moment;
Coalition of the willing; Sure with pockets filling;
Greenbacks, dollars and cents delivered by powerful gents who are anything but gentle –
Strong arm, buying the farm, Oh sure whether a gun to your head or the choice of a comfortable bed,
This coalition is willing to close an eye,
To ignore public opinion, to side step international law –
I wonder truly, the willing,
What do they know?

SDM

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

Curious

Curious –
As I usually am –
At this moment I wonder –
Who in their right mind could be pro – war?
Pro – War?
What exactly does that mean?
Pro – death?
Pro bombs, missiles, bullets and what?
Pro – blood shed, pro – tank;
Pro the usurpation of the rights of humanity?
Of course I can understand the sentiment to support our troops
or the will of the American President.
But Pro – War?
What kind of a fool would say that they are pro – war?
Unless of course its Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Dupont, Dynamics (General) or more –
surely the weight of dollars in their pockets contribute to their rallying cry for war –
Pro – war though?
I am for the removal of Saddam or any other tyrant,
pro – freedom,
pro – choice,
pro – rights,
pro – democracy and pro a better tomorrow,
But I will never be,
pro – war –
Will you?

SDM

Pools of Reflection

Tears well up in my eyes,
dropping to the floor collecting,
in a salty pool from which the reflection is muddled
as today,
the world is different,
not just seemingly,
but is,
truly different.
Tears,
streaming to the floor
reflecting pools now this war has begun,
debate is underway,
so now curious about the pools of blood and pools of oil that are sure to come
while Tomahawks chop and rhetoric sticks like a knife.
All rationale,
all we know points to the necessity to unseat Saddam,
the only question is timing and only history can let us know why now,
with the benefit of hindsight,
20/20,
but not in 60 minutes because the last 48 hours are showing
the Inside Edition of the Nightline
from Dateline Baghdad,
Shock and awe,
Reflecting pools pure as tears,
choking our environment with dinosaur bones tainted by blood;
Tears well up,
Tonight!

SDM

Interconnectability

Would you like to play a game with profound ramifications based on the limitations of humanity?
Right now the game is afoot and Saddam is Moriarty to Bush’s Watson.
Elementary my dear, that this is war, Round 2, finish the job that was started twelve years ago.

From behind the veil of the right to defend liberty and responsibility to instill a truly representative government for the Shias, the Sunni and the Kurds a new Iraq will emerge.

For winter months when the sun was high, heating the says and chilling the nights the soldiers of liberation at Camp Shughart Gordon learned of their fight, the plight of a nation and the resolve of another.

With the precision of lightning and the new high speed of the internet, this war is different and new.

No one ever suggested or expected that the internet would be so swift – Like the justice that is now being enforced. In the information age it almost seems as information, or the opposite of it, is the weapon of choice.

As the sun emerges and the birds begin to squawk and Indian woman chants something barely understandable but the meaning is not lost; Anger very rarely is misunderstood and it would seem in this age anger is an acceptable response to fear as war looms in a new way – The interconnectability of the universe, sitting here, now is emblazoned, bold for the eye.

SDM

context - right after it was clear US was going to invade Iraq.

Invoking God's Name

History has a unique position in humanity, precariously perched as a guide, a beacon and also an excuse. Funny you might say, an excuse, but think about it and you’ll see, an excuse of ridiculous proportions.

When Hitler rose to power certainly not our greatest hour, we stood by for a while to see. While building outlawed armies, reclaiming treaty lost land and shipping Jews out of his Aryan land the rich tapestry of history was used to incite the people. He used history as a weapon more powerful than the atomic bomb for his seething hatred became full only in his propagandas success to win German’s hearts and minds. History was a great source of power and he wielded it as if it was his own.

He spoke of the rise of the Third Reich with great fervour and precise ammunition as he claimed it was his mission to reclaim the greatness of the Fatherland. Behind his rhetoric, the Aryan rants he assured his people of histories favour.

That with time all things would come to pass and that history would shine on the Third Reich for a thousand years. The world now rejoices that his maniacal rants were just that and further that history bears witness to the horror of that, one of the darkest chapters in our history. He invoked the name of God to champion his brutal goal.

History is now knocking again, loudly and distinctly on the door of humanities conscience and again is being used as a reference of justification for our current hostilities.

Around Baghdad in the ravaged country of Iraq, Saddam beams out his message to all who will listen This tyrant in the same vane as Hitler, uses history and God as uplifting evidence of the righteousness of his cause. So I wonder - Am I the only one that sees?

The American sanctioned despot, once friend, now enemy, is using the same tactics Hitler did. Calling for the destruction of the invader as God instructed, topple the infidel and God will reward you: The empty words he uses now, the timing is suspect. Saddam only knows one God: Himself!

But it is not only Saddam debasing God. No, our friends to the south are just as guilty. Bush also uses God and history to justify his actions.

History should not be used as a tool and God is not rhetoric, one sheds lights on our current state, the other light to guide us.

SDM

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