Cheerleaders of War

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

 

Cheerleaders

 

Here they all stand

The cheerleaders of war

Lining up to lead the band

Outside the White House door

 

They cheered for Afghanistan

They cheered for Iraq *

They marched hand in hand

Their step always in lock

 

We no longer see

With sound common sense

With our soldiers in need

We’ll call defense

 

But it’s bold aggression

By any other name

A march of regression

A warmonger’s shame

 

How many must die?

We no longer care

We will not ask why

We would not dare

 

For when the missiles fly

We all must toe the line

When war becomes the cry

We’re leading from behind

 

* pronounced “ee rock”

 

 

Boots on the Ground

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Boots on the Ground

 

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan

They did not ask us to lend a hand

We fought our wars on their land

We hoped they’d understand

 

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan

We put our boots on their ground

We asked them not to let us down

When we unleashed the hounds

 

Iraq is not Ukraine

The differences are plain

Like sunshine and forever rain

They do not want our soldiers

We do not want their grain

 

Ukraine is not Afghanistan

Though they share a common thread

The Russians once invaded them

An act they came to dread

An act the world condemned

 

Ukraine is not Vietnam

They do not want our troops

They don’t want our boots on loan

They only want their country

They want to defend their own

 

War and Warriors

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

Warriors and War

 

To the warriors of World War II

So long ago and so far away

Your numbers now are quite few

But the elders among us remember you

For the courage that you showed

On that fateful day in June

The dark side of the moon

When you landed on that forlorn shore

The stuff of Hollywood and lore

We bow our heads in admiration

The pride of a grateful nation

 

To the warriors who fought in Vietnam

Not quite so proud and true

We offer you our deep respect

May we always honor you

As we remember those who fell

From them we ring the solemn bell

And promise not to make again

The mistakes we made back then

The warrior we should never blame

For the war the fought in our name

 

To the warriors of Afghanistan

Once again we honor you

Though the cause was less than true

You did what you must do

You answered a mourning nation’s call

The young and able, one and all

To fight a shameful terrorist attack

They hit us hard, we hit them back

But soon enough they spun around

And sent you to Iraq

 

To the warriors of Iraq

We owe you our apology

We sent you far across the sea

To fight against an enemy

That never did our people harm

And yet we took up arms

So many lost their lives

In a war that was not wise

We honor and remember you

For being strong and true

Remembering Ronald Reagan

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Remembering Ronnie

 

I remember Ronald Reagan

The man Republicans used to love

Now that we’ve experienced Dubya

and the Don we know he’s not

as bad as we once thought

 

He was bad but not that bad

He never started a war on one nation (Iraq)

for the crimes of another (Afghanistan)

He never drove the economy over a cliff

He never called for open insurrection

He only sold arms to an enemy (Iran)

He only punished poor people

He only turned his back on gays (AIDS)

 

Some of it was not his fault

He was largely absent in his second term

His dementia was clear enough

His Alzheimer’s was diagnosed later

 

Reagan was elected to his second term

at the age of seventy-three

Americans may soon face a choice of

two elderly men to lead the country

One would be 77 at his inauguration

The other would be eighty-one

 

Give all that America and the world faces

Global climate change

Russian military aggression

A Chinese-Russian alliance

Challenges to democracy

A world in constant crisis

Do we really want to trust the next

four years and the future of the planet

to a man who may not remember

who Ronald Reagan was?

 

The Good War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Good War

 

War is never good

Nor can any war ever be considered great

There are wars that are justified

and there are wars that are not

There are wars that are necessary to the

sustenance of human civilization

and there are wars that are fought

for greed and power

 

We have had too many wars for

greed and power

We have had too few wars for freedom,

justice and democracy

We always fly the flag of patriotism

We always claim a righteous cause

Too often it is a lie

 

The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and

Vietnam were lies

The war in Ukraine is not

The people of Afghanistan, Iraq and

Vietnam would not fight for our cause

for it was not their own

The people of Ukraine fight for their

own cause and welcome our assistance

 

Not since World War II has there been

a war so righteous

Not since WW II has there been

a cause so true

 

Ukraine is fighting for freedom, justice

and democracy against a brutal tyrant

War is never good but this war is

just and necessary

 

No Time for War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

No Time for War

 

We’ve seen the war on terror

Another war without an end

We’ve seen the war on poverty

It paid no dividends

We declared a war on Covid 19

And went merrily on our way

We’re accustomed to the metaphor

But it is not a time for war

 

We fought a war in Vietnam

To our eternal shame

A generation rose up to say

Don’t fight it in our name!

 

Of the long war in Afghanistan

We finally made an end

It was never about terrorism

On that you can depend

 

Our futile war in Iraq

Led straight to the Islamic State

What enriched our war machine

Made half the world irate

 

Our failed wars should teach us

There must be another way

All nations must come together

To impose a price to pay

 

Our sanctions must be binding

And punish to the core

Let all aggressors be forewarned

It is not a time for war

 

Eleven September

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Eleven September

 

The eleventh of September

A day we’ll always remember

A day of infamy

Like a symphony of horror

 

The day Americans united

In fear and trepidation

The day we became overtly

A vengeful warrior nation

 

It was early morn in California

When the first plane hit the tower

We knew somehow it was intended

A play for global power

 

Our president cried out Revenge!

They named the enemy bin Laden

How they knew that name so quickly

Is a mystery we’ve forgotten

 

We went to war in Afghanistan

Though they offered him a trial

We could not hear appeals to reason

It would have to wait a while

 

We moved on to Iraq

Before the dust had cleared

Iraq became the nightmare

So many of us feared

 

Two decades have gone by now

Since the towers fell that day

We remember it with horror

As the day we lost our way

Military Madness

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

Military Madness

 

Three presidents elected on a promise

To leave behind the mess in Afghanistan

The military managed to ignore two

The third took a hard stand:

Get out of Afghanistan!

 

So now they take turns in a public lament:

We betrayed our allies and friends

Said what we said meant what we meant

America fights to the bitter end!

Look what happened in Vietnam!

Look what happened in Iraq!

It’s as if you don’t even give a damn!

 

To which our president proclaimed:

Exactly! Now bow your heads in shame!

You lied to Afghans when you said forever

We lied to our own when we said never

Again would we send soldiers to war

When we don’t really know what it’s for

We got our revenge we slaughtered AQ

After that we didn’t know what to do

 

You had three terms to get it done

Now you act like you’re oh so stunned

You didn’t even give it a try

So now it’s on you when people die

And still we don’t know why

 

 

Mercenaries

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

 

Mercenaries

 

Independent contractors

They don’t like to be called mercenaries

They don’t like to be called hired guns

Killers for pay

Have gun will travel

They answer to no one

They have no code of honor

They are torturers and war criminals

They are as old as war itself

 

So while we extend our forces

To evacuate diplomats allies and soldiers

Shed no tears for the mercenaries

Spill no blood for their safety

Let them find their own way home

 

One wonders what war would look like

If there were no hired guns

 

Woe Afghanistan

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AFGHAN WAR

Woe Afghanistan

 

The Taliban is an ancient sect

Sharia law is primitive and cruel

We will oppose this way of life

We will oppose the Taliban rule

 

But we can no longer fight a war

That we could never win

Great armies fell on these grounds

And they will fall again

 

The Afghans must themselves prevail

For they have always known

While they oppose oppression

This oppressor is their own

 

Others cannot fight this war

As we have proven over the years

We gave our blood and treasure

We shared Afghani tears

 

But war cannot go on forever

When it depends on foreign might

We have reached our solemn limits

No longer will we fight

 

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