Anti-Bush Poetry, Part 4 and Related Commentary

Poetry: "Stop-Loss Soldier"
Stop-Loss Soldier, Back in Iraq
I could always go AWOL and never look back
Instead I'll do another tour
'Cuz our Pres. ain't Albert Gore.
And risk my life on death's door.
There is no glory in being dead
Or stuck in a wheelchair or trundle bed.
There is no glory in being maimed
To Bush this war is just a game.
If I die Bush is to blame.
He won't care or know my name.
Sent back to Iraq I've been there three times.
Don't want to go back, this war is a crime.
Stop-Loss soldier, I'm back in Iraq
I thought I was free, but my future's been ransacked.

Due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan our military forces are spread so thin that many soldier's whose terms of service are supposed to be up find that they are coerced to stay in as cannon fodder or reluctant combat soldiers. These unfortunate individuals are referrred to in military parlance as "stop-loss soldiers." This is an unfortunate result of an all volunteer military service. I'm sure the recruiters emphasize the good points of being a soldier, but glance over or omit the drawbacks like potential death, permanent disability or stop-loss conscription.
Perhaps these stop-loss soldiers could go home if all the so-called armchair patriots, especially those who have supported the war all along, have supported Bush, or who drive military-style SUVs like hummer trucks would only enlist or encourage their overprivileged offspring to enlist.

Extraordinary Renditions: Worst Than You Think

I took a month-long sabbatical from blogging and a lot happened while I was away from my keyboard. I won't go into most of that today because I am appalled at how bad so-called 'extraordinary renditions' or U.S. government-sponsored abductions for the purpose of clandestine torture in secret prisons abroad, has become. On WBUR, a Boston-based National Public Radio station, www.wbur.org, one of the afternoon programs last week focused on renditions. I missed some of the program, but in one instance an American citizen of foreign descent (probably an Arab) was detained and abducted and then sent to Morocco where he was tortured for more than six months. The torture likely included so-called waterboarding, a controversial technique which simulates drowning (and which the Bush administration denies is "torture"). As far as I'm concerned if it looks like torture, it feels like torture and it presumedly traumatizes like torture, then waterboarding is torture and is unAmerican at least and illegal at most. Anyway what appalled me about this unfortunate and likely completely innocent victim of this ruthless and unjust Bush policy is that the Moroccan inquisitor/torturer utilized razor blades on the poor fellow's genitals in order to expedite a confession or for information. I don't know about you, but if someone is willing to lacerate my cojones then I would be willing to tell him anything. My imagination would make up so much stuff I could tell lies that would make a Bush republican jealous. As time keeps marching on, I hope Bush pays for his Gestapo tactics before his whole gallery of rogues flies out of office like the plague that it is on January 20, 2009. I'm sure there will be a huge celebration that day to rival New Years Eve. BTW, in a previous column I erred in saying Bush and co. would be gone by Jan. 9, 2009. Unless he's impeached, becomes incapacitated, or dies in office we're stuck with him 'til 1/20/'09. 9/11 is something to mourn. 1/20/'09 will be something to celebrate, if he and his cronies don't thoroughly ruin the nation and the world by then.