The Long War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

The Long War

 

It began with the will to war

by a president whose claim to office

was as suspect as his intellect

 

It began with a lie as so many wars do

Afghanistan provided safe haven to AQ

(the CIA contracted and armed AQ

implanting them in the Afghan war

to defeat the Russians)

The truth is the first casualty of war

Journalism is often the second

 

We’ve carried the lies of war

for twenty years and carry them still

 

We fought to end terror

We fought to avenge 911

We fought for the Afghan women

We fought for democracy

 

When everyone knows we fought

to prove we were the biggest bully

on the Mideast block

We fought to prove we were badder

than the Russians

We fought because we needed a war

to test our weapons

to clear the docket for new weapons

to test our advanced technology

to show the world what shock

and awe looks like

in the flesh

 

We moved on to Iraq

but we forgot to move out

Afghanistan became an afterthought

A deadly wicked afterthought

It was a war we could not win

It was a war we should never have fought

We never had the hearts of the people

An invader never will

 

You cannot win the people

with death and destruction

We lost the war before it began

and we’ve been losing ever since

 

The bully always loses

in the end