Tuesday, April 17, 2007

LIVING WITH WAR

I just finished a few posts about the rough man from Illinois...our Greatest President. in contrast to Lincoln, this is how George Bush expresses himself:
"Mission Accomplished" ( that one really gets me)
"Bring 'em on" (he can't mean it)
"Brownie, you are doin' a helluva job" (while new Orleans drowned)
"Let 'em eat jellybeans"
"The solution to Iraq -- an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself -- is more than a military mission. Precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

"we had to bomb the village in order to save it"
General Curtis LeMay,vietnam era
I would really like to be able to write some kind of angry, mad, and biting words about the "Battle for Peace" the country is involved in right nw but I will defer to Neil Young (and a cast of I do not know how many) on a huge site I found today because Neil is really good at it, and he has a new album out.
There is even poetry on this site from the PBS Special that has been running for 3 days now, written by SOLDIERS who have suited up and walked the streets of Bagdad.

"after the garden" by neil young
"I asked a man on the street what he thought about the war in IRAQ.
He said "Won't need no shadow man runnin' the government. Won't need no stinkin' war."
He looked at me, checking me out.
"Won't need no haircut! Won't need no shoe shine after the garden is gone! What will people say after the garden is gone? What will people do after the garden?"
He just kept lookin' at me like I was crazy askin' about the war. He had bigger things on his mind. He looked like he was a hippie at one time. I don't really know what it was about him that made me think that, but he sure had an intense way about him. He wasn't finished with me. He had been walking away but he turned and looked right at me.
"Won't need no strongman walkin' through the night to live a weak man's day!"
What the hell was he talking about?
"Won't need no purple haze. Won't need no sunshine after the garden is gone!"
That was it. He was definitely a hippie who had taken acid in the 60s. I pondered this. Did this mean he knew more or less than I did? Was his opinion tainted by taking drugs in the 60s? Had he been an environmentalist before it was cool?
I remembered George Bush senior saying that Al Gore was crazy. Something about "chicken little."
Look at them now, Al Gore is right and Bush was and still is wrong on global warming. Al Gore was worried about saving the planet and Bush was worried about saving cash.
I was getting pissed.
The man on the street just stood there looking at me going through my thought process.
"What will people know after the garden is gone?" he asked. "What will people do after the garden?"

6 comments:

Mother of Invention said...

And as Joni says, "We've got to get ourselves back to the Garden".

bulletholes said...

Neil is worried it might not still be there!

Barbara said...

There's an awful lot of really depressing shit going down these days. None of Bush's dirty little wars seems to be ending, nor do they seem to be making a positive difference. We are all in for a rude awakening when the temperature rises. And then mad children are shooting children and others in their frustration. My friend Reya keeps talking "the end of the empire" -- maybe this is the beginning...

bulletholes said...

barbara- if we think we can save the world from evil and create a world democracy then it probably is the beginning of the end.
who are we kidding? We can't even get teenagers to clean their rooms.

Mother of Invention said...

It is certainly eroding.

Old Lady said...

We all play a part in our future. Living and trying to do the right thing lays foundations for progress.