This morning I received a valentine of sorts from Codepink. The following link was provided to a song called “No Bravery” with a film to go with it. The sadness I feel these days are illuminated by this clip.
For those that may not have capabilities to listen here are the lyrics.
No Bravery Lyrics
There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
Tears drying on their face.
He has been here.
Brothers lie in shallow graves.
Fathers lost without a trace.
A nation blind to their disgrace,
Since he’s been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
Houses burnt beyond repair.
The smell of death is in the air.
A woman weeping in despair says,
He has been here.
Tracer lighting up the sky.
It’s another families’ turn to die.
A child afraid to even cry out says,
He has been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
But no one asks the question why,
He has been here.
Old men kneel and accept their fate.
Wives and daughters cut and raped.
A generation drenched in hate.
Yes, he has been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
Please find it in your heart to keep fighting against the Cabal of Fascists in the White House. This is the real war. This is the real enemy. For the children of the World we must keep fighting.
Let your tears of sadness motivate you for one more day to stay in the fight of our lives. Nameste my friends.
(from a jimstaro post in RubDMC’s Iraq War Grief daily witness diary, I think).
It had me in full-blown tears before I was halfway through the four minutes.
But I can’t in good conscience send the link to any of my friends, because of the closing words shown onscreen:
Support Our Troops
Outsource the War
To Iraqis.
That completely brought me up short. I found it incredibly heartless, and the contrast with the images in the film could not have been more abrupt. Outsource the war to Iraqis? Huh???
How about — work for peace, with Iraqis?
I’m on dial up so I haven’t seen the film… but as to the outsourcing comment I might have some insight.
So many jobs have been outsourced. R&D and Engineering jobs, too. Nice, high-paying jobs. Jobs that fed and cared for entire families. We barely manufacture anything here nowadays. There’s one big company in St. Louis called Natoli that still can do this.
My husband’s job was outsourced to Malaysia – the company got a 20 million dollar bonus for after 3 years of being badgered, audited, threatened by THIS country to do so.
Some say the only export of the USA is war.
That might be behind the outsource comment. Might.
This time I’d like to steal YOUR post, Janet. What the hell has happened to our country when the corporations sell America off wholesale, and only the cannon-fodder are supposed to be patriotic ?
The song lyrics are devestating.
I’m nearly 60, and remember so many friends going to ‘Nam. The were raised to be “men”. The military redoubled their masculine indoctrination by insisting that if they were to survive in the band of brothers they had to hold softness, empathy, fear, compassion and kindness in comtempt. Then they went to war, and they were scared out of their minds, and they saw little children with their limbs blown off, and they shook and vomited and voided their bladders and bowels, and lost all sense of themselves, because now they felt like pussies, wimps, faggots, when in fact they were just human like the rest of us, feeling what we all should feel when we witness (or worse, create) horror. None of my friends were the same when they came back, and very few were changed for the better. A few found they liked killing and soon were dead or locked up. A few re-evaluated their beliefs and attutudes, and made a more aware, if sadder life for themselves. Most were just lost; lost to their parents and wives and children and friends, and lost to themselves in a maze of guilt, grief and self loathing until creeping denial masked it over and left them empty shells. War kills the victors, too.
I cannot bear it that the drum beating media, the venal government and the armchair patriots are marching another generation into that hell.
After listening to one of our fine young men’s story on the way to Crawford, someone I had never known before that day and looking him in the eye, I saw tthe sadness in his eyes. There was almost a pleading in his eyes. What was done to him during his service in Iraq and the treatment he received afterward changed him forever. I don’t want one more young man or woman to have to live with what the Cabal of Fascists ruining our country have done. It is inhumane, it is criminal and it needs to be stopped. NOW!
Yes, it destroys all the things they were brought up to believe, doesn’t it ? That American policy is good and moral and caring, that the administration supports and honours the military, that they are going to war to help people. (The Pentagon was going to call it Operation Iraqui Liberation, but had to change it to Operation Iraqui Freedom when OIL sounded too close to the truth. I don’t think the Pentagon likes this administration much, either.)
Your wrote a beautiful diary, alohaleezy. Thank you.
Wow Susanw, thank you. I appreciate your generous words.
Somehow I missed the Outsource the war at the end so I will have to agree with you song on that point. I do love work for peace with the Iraqis but I have a gut feeling we past that type of turning point long ago and now we are causing more harm than good by still being there. Not that we ever should have been.
I’ve watched the film, listened to the music, and read the lyrics twice. Each time I couldn’t stop the tears from running down my face.
Thank you alohaleezy for putting this here.
Wow FamilyMan…that is exactly what I did. I just felt the need to share this with you all on this day that we honor love and the heart. This ol’ heart though is breaking a little piece at a time. Many days I tell myself not to read anymore, not to listen anymore and then I see something like this and I know I MUST stay informed and Engaged. Damn I hate Bushco!
That may be why we feel this need to be connected to each other. Why we chat, call, email, laugh and cry together. It’s so much. It’s too much. Alone we couldn’t bare it.
These past 6 years have been the hardest in my life. But this past year has gifted me the closest friends I have ever had. It’s brought me closer to my loved ones.
I rage I cry I scream… but I do it alone. None of us do or have to.
Yes, now more than ever, we need each other. I really think sometimes I would go insane if not for all of you here. I need you all so much. Thank you for being my friends. Somehow it gives me hope that we will get through this hell and come out better people in the long run. If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention!
Yes, me too.
I work surrounded by Republicans (who have gone strangely silent on political issues for the last year), and while I never doubted my own sanity, I often felt like I reported in to an asylum each morning. I was protesting the run-up to invading Iraq long before the war started. I knew then that there was no connection between bin Ladin and Hussein, that Iraq had nothing to do with 911, that the chemical weapons we had given Iraq were long past their sell by date, and that their nuclear program was nonexistent. I wasn’t smarter than my coworkers; I just researched other sources like ex CIA agents, weapons inspectors, and professors of Middle Eastern Studies.
But being surrounded, day in day out by people who bought the propaganda hook, line and sinker made me feel very alone. DKos was all that saved me from that isolation, and then the vicious Pie Wars lead me, happily, here. Whew !