On the stupidity of war.

::::::::

Four young Marines On a roof Somewhere in Iraq Four young Insurgents Down below Somewhere in Iraq The Marines are dropping frags Through holes in the roof Trying to flush out or kill The Insurgents below The Marines fumble and stumble And discuss what to do They want to do the job But without getting hurt Using their training Full of the cockiness of youth And the hardness of veteran Marines They make their way down a stairwell Fearful but determined The Marines fire on the room below And return-fire drives them up again As the Insurgents holler, "Allah hu Akbar!" The Marines make their way down again But the insurgents Have moved to another room Leaving the Marines vulnerable The Marines leave the house And decide to "light up the whole place" Heavier weapons tear the house to pieces And the Marines return to view the damage The Insurgents lie dead amongst the rumble There was no Hollywood glory in this There was only four young men from the USA Killing four young men from Iraq Four young, American men Turned into hard-asses Supposedly fighting For freedom, Democracy, and each other Four young, Iraqi Insurgents Turned into fanatics Supposedly fighting For freedom, Islam, and each other It wasn't fancy It wasn't heroic It wasn't a big victory It wasn't for freedom, or God And if they were really fighting for each other Then they wouldn't be fighting each other at all If they were really fighting for each other Then they wouldn't be fighting at all

Authors Bio:

Jim Bush is a 67 year old, Vietnam-era veteran, currently living in Texas. He was raised in a military family. His father received the Silver Star for directing troops while under air attack at Clark Field in the Phillipines, survived the Bataan Death March, and spent three and a half years in a Japanese POW camp. He also received the Purple Heart for wounds received while a  POW. Jim served as an army photographer in Okinawa and Korea. In 1987 he traveled to the war zones of Nicaragua with a veteran's group dedicated to stopping the Contra War.