Iraq War Syllogism - 29 Poem by Raj Dronamraju

29

Tonight the gloves will come off in Haditha
Tonight there will be no civilians in Haditha
Tonight we'll follow rules of engagement no sane society could ever approve
Tonight we are out for blood

Tonight women and children and unarmed men will bear the brunt of our anger
But if it was only tonight….

If only the murder of unarmed civilians was a rarity instead of how the USA does business
Expose the wider pattern and see how the My Lai's grow
Blooming like the flowers that grow over clandestinely buried bodies
Victims of violence they hope others will never find out about

American perpetrators of wartime atrocities never face true justice
Only losers of a conflict face the court
In Haditha, marines killed children hiding under the bed and a man in a wheelchair
In another war in Southeast Asia, they shot farmers and left them in ditches

At the end of the big red one, Nazis were absorbed by the winning side
They applied their double standard of freedom to suppress freedom around the world
There is no such thing as 'war crimes' when you are the ones committing them
There is no such thing as 'war crimes' when you are the victor