[Newspoetry] in re: Porter's Scandal

[emerick at chorus.net]

Look at all the black holes
in what DRumsfeld stated...

For instance, when asked how
accountability will be served,
in pursuing responsible persons,
DR fuzzed the liability issue,
by dening that it should attach
to those who "pressured" soldiers
to abuse and mistreat prisoners ...
he wiped his brow, and replied:
"only those who 'recommended' it"
would be pilloried and punished --
and, in the context, then, we hear
all twisted caveats of DRumsfeld --
lawyer-speak, vernacular lying,
for he means a recommending person
would have to be in a command chain,
present on the scene, at the moment,
precisely, as soldiers violated law --
and he exculpates thus the commanders
who have merely pressured soldiers
and squads to "soften up" prisoners --
for, if DR had answered Sen. Levin
in the affirmative, then he himself
might have to fry ten times in hell,
to pay for the least of his war crimes.

Oh, DR was sorry -- but his sorrow
was that of a boy whose hand is caught
when stealing candy from kids --
"Why, I am appalled at this shock!
Who would have thought that anyone,
given all of the lies and coverups,
of the greatest Administration on Earth,
would have followed our examples,
and just started acting like beasts!"

He was appalled, but unmoved to disclose,
as he sat on the story for 6 months?

There was never a good time,
politically, to tell anything
like the God-awful truth.