a welcome home

as the hypocrite talking head

seeking re-election in 2012

tells us all that this empire (which continues to wield its

sledge hammer upon the world)

this “land of the free”

(who demands that all others follow in its

dirty

&

bloody

footsteps),

is one which “unlike the old empires,”

does not force its will upon the people of this planet

“for territory or resources,”

a soldier watching

shoves their finger down their throat

forcing themselves to vomit up the

utterly visceral disgust

which accompanies the knowledge that

s/he has taken part in making Iraq

american.

 

the soldier is coming home to a country

whose chose the spending of money on

bashing Afghanistan & Iraq

to be more important than providing employment,

universal healthcare,

affordable housing or

a decent education system

to its own citizens---

instead we have taken pleasure in killing those abroad

so that they will be forced to be like us---

so that one day they can have

skyrocketing unemployment,

no health care,

no affordable housing or

a decent education system

either

(that is, if they don’t already reside in such a state as a

product of our entrance & extraction of all their

resources for use within our borders).

 

the soldier knows many of the 4,500 who died

in bashing Iraq,

the soldier may be one of the 32,000 who have been wounded,

or s/he may know any number of these individuals

who for 9 years spent their time

killing the 104,000 (estimated by Iraqis)

or perhaps 600,000 (Lancet estimate)

or perhaps even more civilians than that,

as estimates of over a million

come to light through further studies,

not to mention the deaths caused by the

strangling sanctions which the empire administered upon the

country

between 1991 & 2003.

 

the soldier knows that the american embassy in Iraq

will NEVER EVER be gone &

that it is the largest in the world---

the soldier knows that the oil companies have been

feeding on the land since the first green light

like vultures tearing apart a carcass---

the soldier also knows that the contractors

who have been getting paid more than him/her

since the get-go

are flooding into Iraq

like it was going out of style

as s/he goes home for a short time

before they are called up again

to go to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran or

even Australia

to bash bash bash the world into a bloody pulp

even further.

 

and over the “holidays”

the same soldier can discuss with their veteran relatives

from the Vietnam police action

just how great the empire is that they live in,

knowing first hand

better than anyone

just how far its greedy bloody talons can stretch---

then in tandem

they can all shove their fingers down their throats

to vomit up all that disgust again

because it never goes away.