Operation Iraqi Freedom

“The only certain way of remaining above suspicion was to regurgitate the official catchphrases and to echo the insipid pronouncements of the Leader. Statistics were as threatening as hand grenades…” Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky

Shock & Awe turns 15 this week
an American War of Choice
sold to the American public and the world as absolutely necessary

Once the missiles began to slam Baghdad, 
the American media shifted into full war overdrive,
fawning over ex-Generals who praised the US military
day and night on cable TV
millions of people around the globe who marched against this manufactured war
were ignored as if invisible

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Missile strikes described as surgical
harmless to civilians, women and children, old men, newborn babies
meant only for Saddam, the dictator, the evil tyrant holding WMD’s that were never found
because they never existed

Bush knew that, Blair knew that, Cheney knew that, Powell knew that, Rumsfeld knew that,
but emblematic of our time, none of them were held to account for the chaos they unleashed;
W. Bush paints portraits and tosses out the first pitch at the World Series,
plays the jovial ex-president,
oblivious to the bloodstains on his hands;
his accomplices walk free

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Sold with sleight of hand worthy of a traveling carnival,
flogged by the best PR machine the Pentagon could buy
hired masters of illusion,
wizards of “perception management,” 
dim and dark arts
more potent than any wielded by Joseph Goebbels

Embedded reporters loyal to everything but the simple, obvious Truth -- Shock & Awe was unnecessary, unjustified, illegal, a crime against humanity 

Never did we bother to accurately count the Iraqis killed as we “liberated” them
from Saddam’s iron fist;
200,000, 600,000, 1,000,000?
most Americans could care less,
crowds roared when F-14’s streaked over baseball and football stadiums
the lowliest private feted as a conquering hero,
a defender of every beautiful American myth;
we learned to repeat thank you for your service,
until the words were bled of meaning

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Deeper into blissful ignorance we sank
Bush said we won, toppled Saddam, made the world safe again
war had produced peace,
the use of overwhelming military force against a nation that posed
no threat was justified then sanctified
Mission Accomplished

It’s said that the meek shall inherit the Earth
try the line on an Iraqi from Fallujah
who lost his wife, his brother, his baby daughter
everything he once held dear;
now the street where he played as a child
is divided by a bullet-pocked blast wall

Operation Iraqi Freedom

A lie then, a lie now,
a crime then, a crime now
A war of choice waged by the ultimate rogue nation;
for the Iraqi people the war and the suffering are present,
not past