Vigilence

After 9/11 the President's men all said,
"we must go to War."
But few thought hard about what we
were really fighting for.
Caught up in the fervor after such
a horrific travesty
The War on Terror became linked
with our Nation's destiny.
To root out evil wherever it reared
its humanless head
To route out all possible terrorists
and kill them dead.
And so many Americans gave of themselves
and some more than they knew
For Afghanistan was just the beginning of
the trouble that was to brew.
But of the citizens and soldiers who volunteered
to risk their lives and go
How much of the murky and sordid history
did they really know?
Were they ever taught in their high school
that back in '68
During the hell that was Vietnam
and before Watergate,
That the CIA covertly backed
an Iraqi coup
Putting Sadam's Baathists in power
and him in as #2?
And did they know in the '80s the U.S.
gave guns and F-16s
To Sadam so he could fight the Shah in Iran
as a go-between?
So, how many do you suppose knew
just that little bit?
Would you still have stepped forward
knowing that shit?
Or would you have dropped your gun
and walked away,
Determined to come to the solution
another way?
Coups never work out the way they are
planned to be.
Why is that so hard for all the people
in America to see?
Because we never look for the truth
until after the fact
And even then we're too busy stabbing
others in the back,
Pointing fingers and saying to each other,
"It's all HIS fault!"
"He promised us loads of the sweetest sugar;
instead we got salt."

So many of us bought into the miriad of lies,
myself included.
But we can't shed all the blame on to others
for ourselves being deluded.
It's our job as the PEOPLE to be vigilent and keep
the government in check.
No one else is going to protect our rights for us;
we have to stand and demand respect.