Alison Croggon wrote:
>
> enduring freedom
>
> i
>
> everything is different now
> apparently
>
> reporters are treated for trauma
> because of the footage
> they don't show us
>
> but I remember the silence
> when the pics came through the wire
> of gassed Kurdish families
> and those others from Bhopal
>
> they never got in the paper
> either
>
> (that was before photoshop
> washed the foam off the mouth
> of that pretty little girl
> airlifted out for surgery in England
>
> our hearts bled for the kindness of us
>
> it was all part
> of the wallpaper)
>
> ii
>
> history finished and then it started again
> with a "new need for colonisation"
> and by gosh we get to try out
> our helicopter gunships with those
> whizzbang double shooters
> by gum by jingo by jesus
> it's a real war we've got here
> and you kids you're all Good remember
> Good always triumphs over Evil
> and it's real Good of you
> to send your pocketmoney
> to Those Less Fortunate
> so long as you play the right music
> the screens mist over with tears
> and we dream our Heroes
> striding over the wastelands
> with their swords erect
> and their pockets full of antibiotics
>
> in Guatamala you throw Evil into the sea
> from an airplane
> and in San Salvador you rot its face with acid
> and dump it in the streets
> so the citizens will be properly afraid
> of Evil
> as it is liquidated by History
> Africa's another story
> unlike the Middle East which unfortunately
> oils our Western Way Of Life
> just make sure you bring the white cash
> in on cessnas
> to fund the war on drugs
> which keeps Evil gibbering in prisons
> and so on
>
> Evil we're all agreed
> is Evil
> and must be fought
> by every possible means
>
> now it has a new face
> laboured out of the bowels
> of the Pentagon
> so lovingly conceived and now lurching
> towards its bloody apotheosis
>
> how accurately its baby mouth
> teethed on CIA lingo
> how aptly it apes
> the great American nightmare
> that unsaid fear
> sprouting out of every colonist's arsehole
> why it's as simple as abc
>
> you might notice
> the dark side of the skull
> is green like money is
>
> but of course everything is different now
>
> October 18 2001
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Home page
> http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
> Masthead
> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
As I've said before, bin Laden and Islamic fascism cannot be regarded as
representing the poor and oppressed of the earth, and would replace the
rule of global capitalism with something worse.
I might add that Australia benefits as much as the US from current
arrangements.
There is a difference between poetry and smug, self-righteous,
predictable, rhetorical preaching to the converted.
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