A poem
Jocelynne A. Scutt
We sent soldiers to Iraq
Freedom defenders so we’re told
defending freedom
always at the point of
A gun
We sent soldiers
to where
in Alu Graib
Torturers
bash, beat, abuse, humiliate
All
in the name of
Freedom
protecting us from
terrorists, they say
We sent soldiers
To where
Soldiers kill
Civilians
Brains
Spilling out
On soldiers’ boots
Blood
Spurting
Every which way
We sent soldiers
to where US military rape
14-year-old girls
and kill
their families
and them
shoot and burn them up
We sent soldiers
to where at checkpoints
we’re told
they’re so stressed
stressed out
they rape and kill, these US military
Yet have the time to plan
and sit all day
the day
before
playing cards and dinking beer
How stressed
stressed out
to plan a rape because
a 14-year-old girl’s
caught your fancy
Fancy that
stressed out
Yet planning rape and playing cards and drinking beer
Bullshit!
Our soldiers
in Alu Graib or not
are tainted
by these human rights abuses
Crimes by another name
Geneva conventions breached
as if
they do not count
in war
when war was what they were made for
Our soldiers
stressed out at checkpoints
or not
are tainted
by the rapes committed by
their allies
Our allies
in Iraq
For our soldiers
are not alone of course
we’re tainted, too
every one of us
Every singular last one of us
by the torture, rape, murder, killing
human rights abuses
Geneva conventions breached
every one of them our responsibility too
Yet Prime Ministers and Presidents
take to themselves the right
to send troops in
betray their own humanity
and ours
In war, killing, blatant crimes
Against women, children, civilians all
In our name
We stand responsible for both
for sending soldiers in to kill
for sending soldiers in to war
for sending soldiers in
When what they do
they may never have done at all
at home, here
had we not sent them
In.
Jocelynne A. Scutt
14 August 2006
