December 16, 2002
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If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq. If the terrorists are Saudi And the bank takes back your Audi And the TV shows are bawdy, Bomb Iraq. So begins a song parody that has already raced around the Internet scores of times and which contains more real news than a hundred hours of happy talk chatter by TV anchors, and more wisdom than can be found in a thousand hours of babbling by network talking heads. If the media were "liberal," or even honest, there would have been countless stories in this past year about the failure of the war on Afghanistan to do anything more than deliver slaughter, disease and poverty to some of the most poverty stricken people on the planet. There would have been reports on the failure to deliver George Bush's promise to capture Osama bin Laden. Instead, the boy emperor diverted attention by promising to bring about "regime change" in Iraq and the media forgot everything else. There was, of course, no discussion about the fact that a new war on Iraq would be unconstitutional, no matter the craven vote by Congress to leave it all up to George, and immoral. The media's failure to act as more than a 'stenographer to power' is its own shame. But the Democrats are equal partners The media pays no attention to the powerless, but it does pay attention to other centers of power. If the Democrats had had guts enough to stand up to Bush, to denounce his insane agenda, the media would have dutifully reported it and there could have been a real national debate about whether we truly want to become an aggressor nation. If the corporate scandals growin', bomb Iraq. And your ties to them are showin', bomb Iraq..... If the talk has turned to Harken, bomb Iraq..... Are they checking Halliburton? bomb Iraq.... The unknown parodist -- like many populist satire, the original source is lost and new verses keep appearing -- is paying attention to subjects the mainstream corporate media has already conveniently forgotten. The Harken and Halliburton scandals are yesterday's news. Who cares if the president and vice president are up to their cologned armpits in the stench of scandal. They only stole money and betrayed their shareholders, they didn't get a blow job. And again, the Democrats share equal blame, perhaps because they serve the same masters, the corporate powers who stand to gain wealth beyond the dreams of avarice as they supply the resources for war. It's not conscience that makes cowards of our leaders, it's greed, their desire for the corporate bribes, aka 'campaign contributions' that keep them in power. Even if we have no allies, bomb Iraq.... The Bush administration's plans to conquer the world by any means necessary, including preemptive strikes, perhaps with nuclear weapons, is occasionally mentioned in the corporate media, usually with approval. Oh, now and then a pundit may ponderously aver that position carries some risks. Indeed, perhaps of Armageddon. It is a policy of madness and immorality. And it is essentially ignored in the media. It doesn't have the pizzazz of a dead princess, can't compete with 'reality TV.' But once again the soulless Democrats stand silent. While the globe is slowly warming, bomb Iraq. Yay! the clouds of war are storming, bomb Iraq. If the ozone hole is growing Some things we prefer not knowing (Though our ignorance is showing), Bomb Iraq. Global warming is no longer an obscure theory, it is fact that is accepted by every scientist who isn't a corporate shill. The results of global warming are uncertain, but they will be catastrophic. One perverse and ironic possibility is that it will usher in a new ice age, acutely chilling much of North America and Europe. But with extraordinarily willful blindness, the Bush administration moves resolutely backward, promising not less, but more of the polluting gasses that fuel global warming. And the Democrats? Well, they are feeding at the same corporate swill trough, and corporations worry only about the next quarterly report on profits, not the world a decade from now. So once again, they sit in shameful silence. The song parody piles on verses about the world that our leaders and the media, to the extent that they are even separate, don't want us to ponder. The falling stock market, the stolen pension funds, loss of jobs, Bush family troubles in Florida, drilling in the Arctic, the increasing surveillance by Big Brother Bush. And, of course, the fact that the war on Iraq is in the end, primarily about oil. Iraq has it, we want it, so we're going to take it, no matter how many Iraqi babies we have to kill. 2003 is going to be a long year. · · · · · ·
Related Internal Links Iraq on Swans Deck Deckert has spent nearly two decades as copy editor, wire editor and news editor at several metropolitan newspapers, including the Miami Herald and Miami News, before becoming a freelance writer. His articles and stories on everything from alligator farming to UFOs have appeared in numerous U.S. publications. He has written two young adult novels under a pen name, and co-authored a novel about the NATO war on Yugoslavia, Letters from the Fire, with Alma Hromic. Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this article on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans, which will seek permission from the author. This material is copyrighted, © Deck Deckert 2002. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |
This Week's Internal Links
More Of The Same - by Gregory Elich
A Fading Vision Of The USA - by Philip Greenspan
2002 Has Been A Grim Year - by Edward S. Herman
And So Goes 2002. . . . - by Milo Clark
Sinking In, Sinking, Then Ascension - by Eli Beckerman
A Case For The Defense - by Aleksandra Priestfield
Whadda Mess - by Michael Stowell
2002: Still Hope For The Future - by Jan Baughman
Reclaim The Dream - by Alma Hromic
A Pivotal Year? - by Gilles d'Aymery
Café Espresso - Poem by Sandy Lulay
Empty-Handed Women - Poem by Sabina C. Becker
Deck Deckert on Swans
Essays published in 2002 | 2001