Stumbling upon Louise Rill’s poetry website was rewarding. I found this unyielding poem on Iraq operation signifying the emotions of many citizens in the West with a conscience ..
Mission Accomplished
Let us wallow in triumph and glory
for our great army has vanquished
in weeks
an enemy armed to the teeth
with automatic weapons and grenades.
Hand out the medals! Hundreds of
billions of dollars have held legitimate sway
over swarthy desperadoes.
Let us give thanks to God
for only a few thousand of the innocent
happened accidentally (and regrettably) to die
for the Good Cause of democracy
and only a few thousand more
chose to be degraded to a pulp of flesh and uniform
— many of them probably volunteers.
We know the people gratitude will flower
as it has around the world
when our freedoms have been forcibly exported.
We are humble in victory
for we know the American taxpayer
can not bear too high a price
and since the wealthy
are the engines of economic progress
we have only the pennies of the less-well-off
to play with,
but we generously pledge at least a million —
perhaps as much as three
to raise your poor benighted land and people
(poor, in spite of the humanitarian
eyelet we charitably punctured in our sanctions)
we shall line your ancient streets
with fast food outlets
where once were only gossipy old cafes;
our mighty world-competing industries
will be chosen to construct new oil production plants
the like of which will make all gasp in awe
their black milk will flow
and all our auto industries will thrive
to the benefit of every human nation.
Finally we’d like to thank our media
for their restraint and taste
in not intruding in the grief of those few
thousand families
by parading gory death or mutilated children
before our patriotic public.
And to those unpatriotic naysayers,
who raise the question of
who put the tyrant there,
I say – the tyrant’s gone and
look who won!
