Friday, September 5, 2014

Poem by Fritz Pointer: Spreading Democracy

Spreading Democracy
President Barack Obama...now,
You’ve got “bug splat” on your hands, That happens in a handshake, a handoff.

Oops!
January 10, 2010
A family of twelve: women, men, and children dead. “Bug Splat”!
Pilotless drone in Pakistan
Piloted from Kansas

“We’re sorry.
We’ll give you some money.”

Got blood on your hands, now President Obama...Who decides? Killed more “terrorists” than “W”? You’re a Warrior now?
Oops!
U.S. airstrike, Tuesday February 23, 2010 Kills twenty-seven Afghan civilians
Thirteen women
Thirteen children and one man blown to bits. “Bug Splat”!

You know about this Mr. President?
Any blood on your hands?
Twelve wounded...missing limbs....badly burned

You know about this Mr. President?
You read the press. You know about this?

Four women, eight children burned unrecognizably Your generals Betray us and want
“A judicious use of fire”...that is
Blow-up and burn-up people with greater precision “Splat,” it’s over!

Oops!
March 2010
Twenty-eight civilians killed in Marjah, Afghanistan Thirteen children...girls and boys
Thirteen women, two men
Like so many insects! Bugs!

“We’re sorry.
We’ll give you some money...

For the birth defects
From depleted uranium in Falujah, Iraq

A newborn with three heads
A little girl with only one arm Children with paralyzed spines.”

“We turn our heads. We can not look.”
Oops! ...Announcement
“Thirty women and children killed
At various checkpoints throughout Iraq.”

2
“We’re...
Oops!
U.S. raid on bus, April 20, 2010
Kills five passengers near Khandahar
Four women...one infant in a mother’s arms “Sorry...

Oops!
U. S. rocket hits housing compound, July 27, 2010 Kills fifty seven civilians in the village of Rigi. Twenty- seven women
Thirty children...no men.

“We’re sorry.
Can we give you some money”?

Oops!
U.S. helicopter raid, March 2, 2011 Kills nine boys near Kabul
Shot them one after the other

Four were seven years old Three were eight years old One was nine years old One was twelve years old
They were gathering firewood Under a tree
In the mountains
For the cold Afghan winter
Two helicopters hovered over the children

3
Fired rockets and bullets
Chopped up bodies, badly Three children were missing heads
Six children were missing arms or legs.

Parents gathered PIECES of their CHILDREN... their CHILDREN...their CHILDREN!!! Put THEM together
“Wrapped THEM in Swaddling Clothes” Buried PIECES...of their CHILDREN
in a family plot.
Oops,
Again, May 29, 2011
Airstrike kills 14
Five girls, seven boys and two women

Major Sunset Belinsky barked between gulps of blood: “Babies used as shields must be bombed
We cannot be sorry...feel regret
We may offer some money...money...money...

We have the best democracy money can buy.”
Oh No!!!
August 8, 2011
85 civilians killed in Majar Libya near Ziltan Victims of another NATO/US airstrike

Bombs from Jets Missiles from warships Dismembered
Burned

4
32 women
20 men
33 children
(9 members of a single family) Splat!

Dismembered Fragments of flesh Dangling in the air
On the alter of an oil rig
A sacrifice to democracy In the name of Democracy.

Can we give you some dollars? Do dollars mean anything here?
Again,
NATO regrets the air strike
February 16, 2012
This time in Kapisa Province, near Kabul
The danger? The imminent threat to U.S. forces? Six children ages six to fourteen
One mentally ill young man around eighteen

Now, what’s this? March 12, 2012
“U.S. soldier kills 16 Afghan civilians.”
Cowardly, murdered nine children, while they slept Cowardly, murdered four women, while they slept Cowardly, murdered three men while they slept

One grandfather, one baby, one man While they slept
5
Afghans say it was more than one soldier
Navy SEALS? Green Berets? One? Two? Three? Their system creates them
Takes their soul, their empathy

This in the light of burning Korans in bonfires...and Urinating on bodies of dead Taliban militants
Bringing home trophy photos of body parts All part of White Manifest Destiny...
Operation Enduring Freedom ... Spreading Democracy ... and death.
Oh No!
Al-Majala, Yemen
March 29, 2012
46 civilians massacred – we even have names
14 members of the Haydara family
27 members of the Al Anbouri family
22 children: Nasser six years old, Arwa four, Fatima two, Maha twelve, Soumaya nine, Shafika four, Shafiq two

Heads and limbs...here and there
Human flesh mixed with goats and sheep

Missed the target
So sorry
We’ll give you some money Some American dollars Surely you’ll feel better

February 17, 2013...an airstrike
In Kunar Provience, Afghanistan
Four women, five children, and one man

6

Body parts here...and body there...but
Not to worry,
We’ll give you some money
“Restitution” that term is fair
Fifty thousand dollars for killing your mother Fifty thousand for your daughter
Fifty thousand dollars for murdering your father Fifty thousand for your son
Now, you have wealth beyond compare! ....then

Oops!
Thursday, December 12, 2013

What a way to end the year
Honor the season of the Prince of Peace

A Headline: “Air Strike Kills 15 Civilians in Yemen by Mistake” Their wedding car convoy
Mistaken for an Al Qaeda convoy
Ten died instantly...blown to bits by a missile blast Five died later in hospital...missing body parts,

And 9/11 echoes, “Why do they hate us? Why?”
This is one way the USA teaches, Spreads peace, spreads Democracy. Democracy?
What more can they want?

What more can we want?
(“Bug Splat” - What drone pilots call the dead from their attacks)
Fritz Pointer
4 September 2014 


Fritz Pointer is professor emeritus of English at Contra Costa College, Richmond CA. He is also brother of the Pointer Sisters. 

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