AMERIKAN PATRIOT (2022)

Some return in coffins
draped with flags,
Some with limbs missing
Some with minds in tatters and rags.

Disembarking planes
Met on runways by their missus,
And children aged in their absence
A reunion of hugs and kisses

Your experiences have imprinted
On you in unexpected ways,
Even left many demented
For the remainder of your days.

But your loved ones were safe
The entire time you were away,
What about the places you invaded
And those who had to stay.

In lands ravaged by your wars
Families killed and terrorized,
Whose communities you strafed and bombed
Concealed from your own family with lies.

You can’t tell them what you were doing
Certainly not heroic or legal,
The real imprint you left
Under the banner of stars stripes and eagles.

You invaded and occupied others lands
What if the situation were reversed,
If some ruler didn’t like your ruler
And invaded your country first.

If armored vehicles copters and planes
Moved across your landscape at will,
And under any pretext at all
Used every manner of weapon to kill

Those why dared fight back
Which I’m sure would include you,
How the fuck would you feel
What the fuck would you do?

And not just resisters
But babies elders and women,
Were the victims of the violence
Indiscriminate victims of the killing.

Schools hospitals holy places
Centers of civilian events,
Were also deliberate targets
Places incapable of defense.

To put it simply
Just imagine if what you did,
In Iraq and Afghanistan was done to you
Your friends your family your kids.

Amerika boasts the greatest fighting force
The world ever saw,
But it hasn’t fought an actual military
Since 1950 the Korean War.

Where the U.S. called for a truce
At the hands of Chinese volunteers,
Fleeing in history’s longest retreat
Of China they still live in fear.

Every other conflict since
All of which were invasions,
Were fought against civilians
Poor people in undeveloped nations.

All were based on lies
Later revealed in the mainstream press,
And although the people were poor without militaries
They still got the best

Of the invading U.S. forces
although in great numbers they died and bled,
The expelled their invaders
Amerika turned tail and fled.

You weren’t defending or protecting
Americans with your armed forces,
Only service the rich and powerful
In stealing others’ natural resources.

And what of the high incidence
Of abuse and sexual violence,
Against U.S. women soldiers
Who must uphold a code of silence.

And when vets returned home
Amerika left most high and dry,
No mental health or resource support
Many left homeless to die.

Veteran survival rates are lower
Than actual combat deployment,
From suicide and then there’s prison
And lack of gainful employment.

So where does this put you
Oh patriots of an empire of shame,
Whose legacy is one of massacring poor people
But losing each war just the same?

You should be a patriot of humanity
To the people of the world,
Not the tools of insanity
That snuff out innocent boys and girls.