Why are we in Iraq? Seems a mystery.
But I’ll tell you what I do know, with certainty.
I know that some think it unpatriotic to question our government.
Some think it treasonous, even, to voice dissent.
But I tell you it’s the opposite that is true.
To question the character of one’s government is a patriot’s due.
So here we go; here’s what I know:
I know that greed and avarice and hegemony
Are the ruling factors in our foreign policy.
From Allende in Chile, to Aristide in Haiti,
Our leaders have made their plea:
The U.S. has the right to kidnap, kill, or overthrow, all in the guise of “spreading democracy.”
From FDR and Truman, things Americans were never told
Would make you cringe and weep to think
How our press is bought and sold.
And if their terrible acts we could have known
We might have subverted all the terror we’ve sown.
(But We the People didn’t know; there was no one to tell us so).
Why are we in Iraq? It reminds me when
The lust for power and control emboldened “all the president’s men.”
From Wall Street to their wallets all the exits were sealed,
While behind the bamboo curtain they wheeled and dealed.
While Indochina and East Timor died in Kissinger’s bloody hands,
We made our “stands,”
But the People were not told
The cost of being economically bold
In foreign lands.
Is it for freedom? Is it for democracy?
Is it to save us from terror, or for hegemony?
Is it to scare us into giving up our Bill of Rights?
Is it to kill our Constitution while we sleep at night?
We’d better figure it out before it’s too late
And there no one else left for us to hate,
Save for ourselves for falling into this fate,
And a “president” who carelessly dictates.
Is it for freedom and democracy, is it?
Then let me tell you this:
History let’s revisit-
More than once, democratically elected leaders in foreign soil
Found the U.S. Government their very foil!
Here’s a short list:
Allende in Chile,
Makarios in Cyprus,
Arbenz in Guatamala,
And Aristide in Haiti,
Can you believe this?
But what could We the People do?
No one saw to it that we knew.
Why are we in Iraq? The Answer we implore.
Why are we in Afghanistan, and what’s more:
Why do our bullets fly into Lebanon from Israel?
Why do our bombs fall on little boys and girls?
Is it for freedom, is it?
I bet you they wish we’d quit it-
Mourning parents and crying orphans who aren’t terrorists.
Why are we in Iraq? I don’t know.
But it’s not the first time our bombs were let go-
On innocent civilians,
Killing millions.
So here’s another list,
Of people who quite rightly see us as the terrorists:
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia,
Indochina-at-Large, East Timor, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Libya, Lebanon, Palestine,
Columbia, Angola, Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile,
Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti,
And don’t forget on our very own soil: Waco, and Kent State, Ohio!
U.S. bullets flew,
U.S.- armed death squads ruled,
U.S. bombs blew,
But was it for democracy?
Can’t you see?
That’s what We the People were told,
But it doesn’t hold
Under scrutiny.
And to the World, the message is loud and clear:
Bow to our interests if it’s Life that you hold dear!
Doesn’t sound like democracy to my critical ear,
No, American Terrorism is what I hear.
Why are we in Iraq?
We’re not supposed to ask,
And we were never told.
But I’m telling you people, Liberty has been dethroned.
by Virginia Wilson