Saturday, December 30, 2006

Gallows

Gallows

Gallows (1999)

Before Bush-Cheney and Fox News start in with the strap-on-the-codpiece greeted-as-liberators photo ops over the mission accomplished of Saddam Hussein's execution, let's first have one of those cost-benefits analyses that brain dead trust Republican think tanks periodically demand for spending on social programs:

Benefits:

--Overthrow of Saddam Hussein in a war of choice based on lies.
--His show trial.
--His execution without participation of the World Court.

Cost:

--650,000+ dead Iraqis (according to a Johns Hopkins study).
--3,000 dead Americans.
--20,000 wounded or maimed Americans.
--A "long war" (now longer than WW2) and one with no plan, exit strategy, or end in sight.
--Military strained to the breaking point. National Guard shipped out. Re-ups and backdoor draft approved.
--War profiteering on a grand scale.
--Treasury drained of $400 billion and counting (final estimate of $2 trillion possible).
--U.S. world influence and popularity sinking daily.
--Nation is less safe from terrorism. In fact, new terrorists being sown like dragon's teeth.
--Nation increasingly becoming an Orwellian state:
--Euphemism field day ("extraordinary rendition," "enemy combatant," "surge" for escalation, etc.).
--Habeas corpus gone.
--Warrant-less surveillance booming.
--Geneva Conventions "quaint" and scrapped.
--Gulags established in our name.
--Torture condoned in our name.

Hey. Modern Romans. You do the math.

~/~

Tags: , , , , ,

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Caligari's Choice

In this box, the sleeping corpse
of the healer of the nation,
the only man appointed
but not elected to the Presidency,
who claimed that "the system works,"
who pardoned his Republican predecessor
all crimes he might have committed.

In this box, the desiccated corpse
of the Butcher of Baghdad,
a former puppet of American foreign policy,
quickly, shamefully, and secretly hung
by the designated puppet government
that American troops currently
prop up in the green zone.

In this golden casket, the corpse
of the Godfather of Soul
who found religion late in life
after being jailed for possession
and for beating up his wife,
but whose hips kept the beat
alive at the Apollo.

The choice is yours, Mr. President.
For which one will you close
the government down
after the New Year?

[Disposable Poem December 30, 2006]

cruelanimal said...

Great poem. Thanks.

Frederick said...

Fiddling while Rome burns?

...priceless.