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War’s First Week

 

The cakewalk
has become a bit sticky

some Iraqis have turned
their daisies

into rifles
& hand grenades

seems many
don’t like tyrant Saddam

nor foreign invaders
dropping cruise missiles

and cluster bombs
In Basra the water supply

has been cut off
and we are seeing

the possibility
of humanitarian catastrophe

war should never
have been viewed

as a latenight poker game
initiated by those

too zealous
to send their own kids

into urban combat
It’ll take millions of patriots

& internationalists
(truthfully the same folks)

to throw the lunatics
out the White House

Until then we are facing
more weekends from hell

as well more spring days
filled with thousands

marching down Broadway
for a democratic peace

This is one of the two
oldest stories on the planet

(both originating here)
Let the battle for ideas

replace those young corpses
growing cold under desert moons
ELIOT KATZ is the author of three books of poetry, including Unlocking the Exits (Coffee House Press, 1999). He is a coeditor of Poems for the Nation (Seven Stories Press, 2000), and the poetry editor of Logos, an online politics quarterly at www.logosjournal.com.

 

Today’s Features

Alexander Cockburn
The Politics of Casualties

David Lindorff
Making America Safer…for Iraqi Fighters

William Blum
Some Observations on the Recent Behavior of the Empire

Gustavio Sierra
The Morning After the Slaughter at Nasser

Patrick Cockburn
Playing Into Saddam’s Hands

Robert Jensen
Peter Arnett: Whipping Boy of the Pentagon

Jeremy Brecher
Uniting for Peace Update

N.D. Jayaprakash
The Siege of Basra

LaDawn Haglund
You Can Jail the Resisters, But You Can’t Arrest the Resistance

Robert Fisk
Truth and Subterfuge

Jemima Khan
I’m Ashamed to be British

Stew Albert
Total War

Steve Perry
War Web Log

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