20151116 (roots of wars)

Last year since it had been the 

Hundredth anniversary the first

World War I thought to gain a 

Greater knowledge of its causes

Its conduct its conclusion

Besides reading  Barbara

Tuchman’s The Guns of August

And Adam Hochschild’s To

End All Wars I thought also to 

Watch a twenty-six part series

From British television comprised

Of the earliest films from all sides

Of the conflict I came away

Thinking if ever there was an

Avoidable unnecessary war WWI

Was it critics of this view also

Gave their rationale and proposed

They who did not favor their 

Conclusion really had no understanding

Of the factors of the time European 

Empires first had to die to allow  

Progress die they did horrifically

What remained of those empires

Would never again be the same

My thoughts are still of Paris I will

Not attempt to say the last word

For there is so much to be said

I have lived most of my life in

This time of change observed some

Of its shaping I am no student of

History or otherwise qualified

To comment meaningfully

Except to confront those who’d

Heap all the blame on Islam

Today Muslims the world over

Decry the terror the slaughter

Of the radicals I don’t believe

The crazed carnage of recent years

Any more than Christianity is

Responsible for the devastation of

Iraq Afghanistan or Syria we have

Yet to place ourselves in the position

Of the rebel advocates to understand

Their motives our country has a mixed

Status vis-a-vis the Arab world and the 

World of Islam we are desperate to buy

Oil from the Saudis yet over the decades

Of our making them rich they have 

Come to regard us as fools we continue

With three billion dollars annually

To fund Israel’s Zionist oppression 

Extinction of Palestinians  we pay for 

Their wars periodically pat 

Ourselves on the back for seeking

Peace which efforts are no more 

Than a sham we talk up democracy

In the world but not in Egypt where

With more billions we shore up

Despotism we razed Iraq ruined a

Land concocted out of the victors’

Greed in the first World War

Nor can we overlook that our CIA

Deposed Iran’s first democratically

Elected ruler re-imposed a

Corrupt and vicious Shah

We do not respect their wish

To be self-governing peoples

I am not justifying the murders

But before we cry out for vengeance

We should wash the blood and oil

Off our own hands

c. J.S.Manista, 2015