20160530 (deception)

Iraq and Afghanistan medals for sale by Sgt. Trevor Coult, British war protestor

Tomas Young, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and American war protestor who was paralyzed, suffered, and died at age 34.  Remembered with honor in documentary Body of War, by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donohue.

Pacifists do not dishonor the dead

Nor mock the injuries of the veterans

Who return. But they cannot in good

Conscience celebrate the sacrifice

And join with those who must

Make sense of their deaths and

Suffering. None would tell a 

Mother, a father their child died

In vain even if the death only

Underscores the perversity of

War, the stubborn stupidity of

Prideful kings, callous politicians.

Why do they not, these parents

Of the mutilated and slain, rise

Up against those who led their

Children into “harm’s way” as 

It is now so euphemistically

Titled? No military leader ever

Proclaimed, “We will take your

Sons and daughters and return

Them to you as ground meat

In tidy green plastic bags if

We find enough of them to

Label accurately.” No supporting

Legislator has been heard to

Say, “The war we voted for

Today will be horrifyingly

Long, expensive beyond our

Ability to pay. It will render

Us savages, more barbaric

Than any in history has been

One to another. You will refuse

To know the criminality we 

Told them to do and that they 

Did. When they return you, 

You will not recognize nor 

Welcome them in your homes

With their broken minds, their

Eyes forever staring past you.” 

News of those days did not say,

“Weep, mothers, for yourselves,

Your families. Prepare a space 

On your mantles for boxes of 

Medals to place beside their 

Portraits. The strong young 

You send away today, if they

Come back at all, will return as 

Ghosts, wracked with holy

Pain, inconsolable sorrow

For what they were taught to

Do and did to save themselves,

Their friends from what another

Mother’s son thought to do,

Their idea of national pride,

Some murderous act of valor.

Each death we mete out,

Each death we absorb, each

One rendered as if shoved

Through some maniacal

Processor for foolish lies

Mouthed above their graves

Because none has the courage

To speak the truth.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016