It all seemed so idiotic all the accusations of unpatriotic

The fall we'll always remember, capitulating silence

election November before the winter

of the long hot summer

Somewhere in the desert

we raised the oil pressure

and waited for the weather

to get much better

for the new wind to blow in the storm

We tried to remember the history in the region

the French foreign legion, Imperialism,

Peter O'Toole and hate the Ayatollah

were all we learned in school

Not that we gave Hussein five billion

Not of our new bed partner the Syrian

and of course no mention of the Palestine situation

It was amazing how they steamrolled

They said eighty percent approval

but there was no one that I knew polled

No one had a reason for being in the Gulf

We waited for congress to speak up illegal build up

But no one would wake up

Our representatives were Milli Vanilli's

for corporate Dallas Cowboy Beverly Hillbillies

With perfect timing

the politicians rhyming their sentiments

so nicely oil gold and sand

my sediments precisely....

We regretfully support the lunacy

I'm afraid there is no time for more scrutiny

National unity preserve our community

Teflon© election opportunities

were in profundant abundance



On January second the Bush administration

announced a recession had stricken

the Nation the highest quarterly

earnings in ten years were posted

by Chevron©

Meanwhile a budget was placed in our hands

as the deadline in the sand came to an end

so much for the peace dividend

one billion a day is what we spent

and our grandchildren will pay for it 'til the end

When schools are unfunded

and kids don't get their diplomas

they get used for gun boat diplomacy

disproportionately

black or brown we see

bullet catchers for the slave master



Then the conservatives called up reservists

to active service left families nervous

but more importantly broke nine hundred a month

but the check came late, army red tape you see,

this golden opportunity

We watched the tube and read the newspaper

The propaganda of the gas masked raper

was the proper slander to whip up the hatred



The stage was lit and the lights were all faded

The pilots in night vision goggles Kuwaited and

generals masturbated

'til the fifteenth two days later they invaded

Not a single t.v. station expressed dissension or

hardly made mention to the censorship of information

from our kinder and gentler nation

blinder and mentaler retardation

DISORIENTATION

The pilots said their bombs lit Baghdad

like a Christmas tree

It was the Christian thing to do you see

they didn't mention any casualties

no distinction between the real

and the proxy

only football analogies



We saw the bomb hole

We watched the Super Bowl

We saw the scud missile

We watched Bud© commercials

We saw the yellow ribbons

Saw pilots in prison

We never saw films of the dead...at eleven

Angela Davis addressed the spectators

and shouting above a rumbling generator said

if they insist on bringing us down

then let's shut the whole country down

Marching through the downtown

A hundred thousand became participants

and we heard the drums of millions off in the distance

rushing through the cities

some of them did things that weren't so pretty

most were there for primal scream therapy

news men concentrated

on the negative liked the jingoists more

peaceful protesters ended up

on the cutting room floor

Nintendo© casualties of the ratings war

More bombs dropped than in World War II

on in both Asian invasions, new world order persuasion,

Business as usual

for our nation

Could you imagine a hundred fifty thousand dead,

the city of Stockton

coffins locked in when we clocked in...not to mention

civilians

The loss of life on both sides

pushed the limits of resilience

The scent of blood in our nostrils

fuel of the fossil land of apostle

The blackness that covered the sky was not the only thing

that brought a tear to the eye or

the taste of anger to the tongues

of those too young to remember Vietnam



Is heroin better in a veteran's mind

than the memory of the dying laying in a line

Is it the smell or the shadows heaving and weeping

that keeps the soldier from sleeping

as he sings the orphan's lullaby

When the soldiers put down their bayonets

the strings are chained to the marionettes

Emir of Kuwait gets back in his jet

we replace the dead with new cadets

will we hate those who did the shelling

or will we hate those who weren't willing to do the killing

when the leaders of the bald eagles come home to roost

will we sing a song of praise and indebtedness

for our deliverance from evil

or will we sing a song of sadness

for the dreaded debt this mess delivered us PEOPLE.