Iraq War Syllogism - 1 Poem by Raj Dronamraju

1

These are excerpts from the memoir of the occupation
We remember how government occupied us rather than the other way round
What a toll that took on a treasury taken for granted
Everything we have taken for granted
I'll see your ungrateful masses and I'll raise you ignorance doled out in the wrappings of patriotism
Pigs in a blanket!

The setting here was one of turmoil, one of a great injustice done to a people
And the people are looking for someone to punish in response
Someone to be held responsible
Thrown up against a wall and roughed up
"Don't give us a reason" armchair tough guys said
Reason is jettisoned for the ballast of fear

He said "I don't like where this is going"
But he was not listened to
They turned their hearing aids off
They turned their hating aids on

The setting here was the destruction of a symbol
Which in retrospect was treated as if it held up the heavens
The heavens did not come tumbling down when the symbol did
Instead what fell out was the barely contained hatred for what was foreign, xenophobia
Racism and hatred for one based on their religion
Let's yell words from our car at a woman walking along the street with a darker skin tone and perhaps a head covering
Let's shoot at the gas station attendant with the turban and the beard

The pre-planners mime the sullen on a Segway
Shaking hands and passing on war fever like it was the common cold
You can protest all you want but it won't accomplish anything in the end
You are either for us or against us, with us or with the terrorists

I'll breathe in deeply, wish others in power would do the same
Step back, separate their personal agenda from the misuse of a nation's military
But they are of demonic origin, pre-destined for warfare.
They are in control and dictating the imperative of a nation past the midway point of its ascension to global dominance

And while you can assert your ignorance and describe an axis of evil
Where no such connection exists and your struggle to make it so lacks any credibility
This only increases the speed in which our nation, our empire embraces decline
Embraces decline and looks forward to irrelevance - the fate of all empires