Afghan Blame

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

Afghan Blame

 

Do not play the blame game

In Afghanistan at this late date

The sun has long set

The writing on the wall

Has faded to dust

 

This tragedy was decades in the making

Three presidents have tried and failed

To withdraw from the endless war

If you need to blame someone

Cast your vision back to the beginning

When an inept leader

Demanded a war of vengeance

And lost interest when the mission

Lost its clarity

And the glory lost its luster

 

If you need blame

Look to our military leaders

Who year after year reported progress

When there was no progress

Who all but promised victory

When victory was a tortured mirage

Who refused to plan an evacuation

Despite many years of notice

 

If you need blame

Look to our intelligence agencies

Who have established a record

Of incompetence unrivaled

In modern history

 

If you need blame

Look to the chorus line of cheerleaders

And talking heads who demanded war

And now question the consequences

 

If you still need blame

Blame the hypocrites and warmongers

Blame the pimps of patriotism

Blame the foreign policy experts

Blame American exceptionalism

Blame the history of empires

Blame yourself

For not speaking out

Until now

 

The Good War

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Good War

 

They called it the good war

(even those who called themselves

the antiwar movement)

They called it the righteous war

(the war with noble intent)

 

When we marched a million strong

Against the war in Iraq

Some of us said: This is not Afghanistan

This is Vietnam

 

They were wrong

They can rewrite history for a thousand years

They will still be wrong

Afghanistan was Vietnam

Afghanistan was Iraq

They were all wars for empire

They were never wars for liberation

They became wars of occupation

With puppet governments

Their own people could not stand

 

In the vast history of civilization

An occupying power has never liberated

A people without the people’s support

The people will always view an invader with doubt

The people of Afghanistan

Would not fight against the Taliban

The people of Afghanistan

Would not fight for American interests

The people of Afghanistan

Would not fight for women’s rights

The people of Afghanistan

Would not fight for American democracy

The people of Afghanistan

Are tired of war

 

They have fought for generations

Against more enemies than they can count

 

Leave them be

Let them determine their own destiny

We are not gods

We cannot tell them

What is worth fighting for

 

The war is over

Go home

 

Apology to Afghan Women

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHANISTAN

Apology to Afghan Women

 

Is it better to have known freedom

And to have it taken from you

That to never know freedom at all?

 

Once upon a time we made a promise

We never intended to keep

We promised to give you liberty

A great and storied leap

 

But we did not keep that promise

And for that we apologize

 

Once upon a time we told the world

It was all about freedom and equality

The right to vote

The right to work

The right to speak freely

The right to an education

The right to worship as one pleases

 

We did not tell the truth

We fought for many reasons

But these were not among them

 

We fought for strategic advantage

We fought for an oil pipeline

We fought to prove to the world

That we were the baddest warriors

On the face of the earth

We fought for revenge

We fought for blood

 

We dropped our bombs and then forgot

We moved on to Iraq

 

We know now as our leaders knew then

It was a war we could not win

 

For that we must apologize

 

The Fall of Kabul

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Fall of Kabul

 

Kabul falls to the Taliban

The civilized world is in mourning

For those who fear theocracy

This serves as a dire warning

 

We knew this day was coming

Or at least we should have known

Through twenty years of occupation

Our fears have only grown

 

To the women of Afghanistan

Whose future looms most bleak

We offered many promises

We did not intend to keep

 

As you walk into a new world

Dark and shrouded in fear

You must find a path to hope

You must hold it near and dear

 

We must find a way to help

Without bullets and without bombs

We must isolate the Taliban

As we should have all along

 

Though we knew this day would come

We did not know when

Twenty years is a long time

To finally reach an end

 

Haitian Woes

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Haitian Woes

 

Sweltering heat

Floods and raging fire

A pandemic in relentless waves

Poverty and homelessness

A legacy of slaves

 

Take all our sorrows

All our deepest woes

Compound them by a force of ten

We would still fall short of Haiti

Whose tragedies strike

And strike again

 

An assassin took your leader

The virus struck you down

Now an earthquake and tsunami

Bends you to the ground

 

There is no end to heartbreak

Your people have endured

There is no end to misery

Of that we are assured

 

Shall we offer you our helping hand?

Should we offer prayers instead?

Shall we help you with the living?

Should we help you count the dead?