war

when you said you'd met donald rumsfeld
and that he was really a cool guy

i offered a sarcastic response:
responsible for the deaths of millions
and a cool guy

you then offered it was on one of your two tours of duty in Iraq
and rummy was asking you if the equipment was working
and i could see how his expression of concern for your well-being
must have indeed been pretty cool

i considered offering that i had been watching a video from iraq the night before:

u.s. soldiers were picking off civilians with machine guns
and rejoicing like some macho teenagers in some video arcade
watching the iraqi cars suddenly veer off the road
and shudder to an ominously silent halt

the images have stayed with me as some of the most horrific i have ever seen in their demonstration of absolute disregard for and disconnection to human life

i didn't ask you whether you killed anyone over there and how you felt about it

serving in the armed forces is supposed to represent something honorable and amidst all that you are probably dealing with in your young life i didn't want to add the burden of cognitive dissonance

it is a problem that i never want to add to anyone's suffering so
even though cognitive dissonance is precisely what is necessary
when one is awakening from being brainwashed:

4000 americans have died in a six-year war
declared simply for greed and hubris
leaving a legacy of radioactivity, injustice, hatred

and a million iraqis dead

we carry on without protest
hoping to save our own skins
amidst this new world order

like the good citizens of nazi germany
we deserve everything soon coming to us