By Glenn Buttkus
June 2008
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7554/
This morning
I stood in the pre-dawn chill
and pumped 4-buck gas
into my pick-up.
Suddenly consumed
with unspeakable anger,
I shook my free fist
at the Shell sign --
standing there tall
and sullen
and silent,
arrogantly golden
flashing
its $4.15
for regular gas
message.
I thought about
The Bush War
and what it is costing
us/me,
and about the fat cat
oil barons
who hang out with Junior
swilling Lone Star
and counting their tax-free
trillions.
The New Millennium Crusades
suddenly swam belligerently
into my cortical net,
witnessing Bush stir up
the Muslim wasp nest,
sending our youth
into harm's way
to face the barbs and stingers,
RPG's, roadside explosions,
and suicide bombers
who themselves
are barely old enough
to enjoy
the promised 100 virgins
in Jihad Paradise .
A few yesterdays ago
there we were
post-9/11 in 2003,
wanting to strike back,
wanting revenge
for the terrible toppling of our towers, and the callous crushing of the innocent thousands, as death was brought to us on our own silver wings, diving and plunging straight down, laden with high-pitched screams from jet engines pushed to full throttle and passengers hoarse from fear.
Something had to be done.
Who could we punish?
Who could we kill
to satiate our blood lust?
George W. Bush, Jr.
and all his father's posse
smiled like hyenas
in a silent pack,
and their greedy index fingers
pointed back,
straight at Iraq;
telling us repeatedly
that right there was the heart
of darkness,
the den of murderers,
the scourge of the earth;
plotters, terrorists, and enemies --
that Bush was ready
to lead us
into a holy war
that would finish the job
left undone by his daddy
in 1991 --
that as righteous patriots
we should take on
the rag-tag Republican Army
and run that ruthless fox,
Saddam Hussein,
to ground;
for he was a madman,
an abuser of human rights,
a killer,
a dictator,
a womanizer,
a sodomizer;
and not only
did he absolutely possess
weapons of mass destruction,
but he fully intended
to send unmanned squadrons
of drones
to our eastern shores,
that were fully laden
with biological germ warfare payloads.
75 senators were duped, cajoled,
and convinced,
thus launching
Operation Iraqi Liberation;
soon to morph into
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
During the one month assault,
we overran Hussein's finest troops
like shooting coyotes
from horseback,
and it only cost us
139 American lives.
"Outstanding!"
was on the commander's lips,
followed by,
"Let's stick around a while now,
and assist the Iraqis into forging
a Democracy."
We all recall
the smirking grin
and lying eyes
of warmonger
Donald Rumsfeld;
and that late afternoon
five years ago this May
on the USS Abraham Lincoln ,
when Commander in Chief,
President Bush
emerged from a fighter
wearing a flight suit,
stood spread-legged on the naked steel deck, waving his thunder bolt helmet and declaring, " Mission Accomplished!"
And presently
here we are,
knee-deep in Year 5,
fighting "asymmetric warfare,"
without front lines,
against a faceless enemy
that hides in
and melts into
the civilian population;
just like before
in 1964 --
except now we are immersed in
and surrounded by
civil war and insurgency,
as we are being branded
the Occupying Force,
once again;
spilling blood for greed
and democracy --
being taught hard lessons;
like we cannot curtail
the flow of Jihad insurgents
by cutting the head off the Hydra,
or its whelps,
or its lieutenants --
for new warriors
spring like cockroaches from the shadows, craving to join the resistance to the Infidels and Capitalists, arriving in dark clumps daily, like monsters rising out of the blood-soaked waters of the Tigris and Euphrates -- making us pay every day for patrolling the Sunni Triangle.
Oh God,
when will the madness end?
How much black gold
has to be pumped
into profit
from the Iraqi
fat oil reserves?
How many more
retired Special Forces
will have to be recruited
by Blackwater
to protect Bush's
real agenda?
The numbers for Y5
are staggering!
U.S. dead: 4,079.
U.S. wounded: 30,000.
Contractors dead: 1,028.
Contractors wounded: 10,569.
Iraqi death toll: 1,000,000.
Iraqi combatants dead: 10,800.
Insurgents dead: 22,807.
Detainees: 43,000.
Like in the 60s
when the carnage
in Viet Nam
was broadcast to us daily,
splashing red and futile
on our living room television screens -- today our forced occupancy of Iraq is beamed immediately by satellite to every home, for all of us to see and cringe as the pride of our loins are kicking down doors and pumping hot lead from their Mossberg shotguns into the Islamic populace -- are being ambushed around every corner, Green Zone or not; witnessing the riddling of those poorly armored Humvees, those High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, with bullets bought in black markets, originally manufactured by us and sent to Saddam when it was his job to fight the Iranians for us.
Our young men
and women,
do their duty,
without hesitation,
becoming hard-hearted
and stone-jawed --
even though many of them
may be stop-lossed
or extended
by their loving government
to stay
in the fray;
professional targets,
standing atop
an M1 Abrams battle tank,
or racing down some dangerous narrow alley in their M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, or screetching through those mean Moslem streets in Strykers -- the dead brown skies above choked with Apaches, Kiowa Warriors, Black Hawks, and Chinooks -- the dirty twilight punctuated by the deep throb of dozens of .50-caliber lethal heavy machine guns -- patrols partially protected by howling M249 SAWS.
Yes, Lord,
we see it all;
and feel overwhelmed
with intense grief and anguish
as this cavalcade of cavalry and contractors are at this very moment toiling in the acrid white dust of the Middle East, providing the opportunity for the petroleum bullies to force me to have to pump their goddamn
4 buck gas,
and shake my inept fist
at a stupid sea shell,
and snarl terribly
at those barons unseen,
but most certainly
felt.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/06/03.html
Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
Cartoon courtesy of Pat Oliphant / Washington Post 
