[Newspoetry] I Love This Country

[DL Emerick]

I love this country, too -
I love her when she is right,
I love when she is wrong, too -
But when she is wrong, I will not lie for her,
I will not let the words of fools,
"My Country - right or wrong",
Keep me from doing what is right for her,
When she is wrong.
 
Some wars are just.
Some wars just are -
Because politicians will fight wars for many reasons,
Some good, some bad, some evil.
 
It is the soldier's sad duty to fight and even to die,
Whether the politicians are as smart as a Clinton
Or as stupid as a dumbshit like Bush is.
 
Soldiers fight because it's their job, their only job,
And often it's a thankless one, as well.
 
And, nothing is more irritating,
When you're eating dust and ducking bullets,
And your buddies are bleeding and dying,
Than hearing some anti-war protester proclaiming:
"This war is stupid and pointless."
 
The protester may be as right as rain,
Or he may be as wrong as all hell,
But that's not the point of being a soldier -
Because a soldier isn't paid to think, or to judge -
He's just paid to stand in there and fight -
And he'd like to believe,
Like every man and woman does,
That his actions are good and have some larger meaning
Because none of us wish to live a bad life,
Nor an empty one that has no meaning to it.
 
But, that's all airy philosophy.
 
Wars start and wars end
When politicians decide they do -
And when and while there are wars,
There will always be warriors and their lovers,
And protesters who love them, too,
and who do not want them to die,
Not if their deaths are only accidents of bad causes,
Not if their deaths serve only the follies of the stupid.
 
I love my country, her warriors and her protesters,
For we are a free people, and wish to be proud of her,
And not ashamed as we have to be when she is unjust,
As when she fights an unjust and immoral war,
As when her President and his staff lie to her,
And cheat on her, pursuing their own vain self-glories.


Such is Bush's war, that he treats America like a whore,
As if she's willing to do anything for the price he's paying,
Spending many billions to buy his nice niche in history.
 
For a good slide show on soldiering, see
http://www.slideshare.net/lexl/credentials-193529/
(I recommend full screen mode.)
(I write this in reply to yet another attempt of the Bushies to equate
support for Bush with support for our country,
to monopolize patriotism in a false union under his paternalism.)
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