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| Looks like so much more work than a salami sandwich |
Can’t believe how badly I want
To eat something right now but
Tomorrow is my first day with
A new dietician, then I follow
Up with lunch with my friend
Who is a vegan/co-protestor.
She advocates a food regimen
I fear would drive other vegans
To distraction, but she is a dear
Compatriot of five years now
Since we traveled to DC for a
War protest. How effective we
Were! Looking back—one war
Ended (Iraq) and we pulled our
Fighting forces out (drawn down)
Of the other (Afghanistan).
Sadly all we have to show for
Our efforts are 43 prisoners
Still locked up in Guantanamo,
A hugely tarnished international
Reputation, a record of war crimes
In addition to a proven capacity
For torture, assassination, five
Thousand new applicants for
Gravesites at Arlington, tens
Of thousands severely injured
Young men and women who
Realistically have little hope
Of recovery, a list of post-
Service veteran suicides that
Grows by 22 every week, un-
Counted shattered families,
A batch of VA hospitals choked
By both bureaucracy and
Unplanned expansion—and
A final (not yet by a long shot)
Total cost of nearly three trillion
Dollars. Not too shabby for
George Tenet’s little “slam
Dunk.” But wait, there’s more!
The wars never really ended and
There’s another one to boot (ISIS).
Who knows in what we would
Have been entangled had we not
Stepped in the middle eastern
Muck-murk? If we had avoided
Involvement can we seriously
Claim we would have spent
The money wisely? That we’d
Be five thousand or so college
Graduates richer? That our
Citizens would be happy we
Had not near fatally injured
Tens of thousands of their
Son and daughters? That we
Would be selling the world
Our new alternative energy
Machines? That participation
In seasonal voting would spike
Because we wouldn’t be
Dispirited over enervating
Pointless wars? Why do I have
My doubts? Hindsight yields
So little hope. We’d still have
Militarism, corruption, racism,
The continually growing gap
Between the haves and havenots
Of our own country. We can’t
Bring prosperity and peace to
Our own nation. Whatever gave
Us the idea we could help others?
c. J.S.Manista
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