Indictment USA

[Blessed]

A poem by ex- Guantanomo detainee Moazzam Begg, reflecting on the USA.

 

Incarceration upon my own

Right here in G’tmo Bay,

Brings to mind a distant home

Far, far, far away…

 

But temperaments begin to sour

Upon this doleful day,

Reflecting on the ‘super-power’

Known as the USA.

 

Examining this mystery,

And its status as today,

Begins the sordid history

Of an early USA:

 

 

PART 1

 

The ‘Fathers Pilgrim’ sailed the brine

Aboard the ‘Flower of May’,

And Anchored in the fateful sign

Of a covetous USA (1)

 

Achieving an independence,

Through hard won battle-play,

They focused on the presence

Of the native USA (2)

 

The receptive Indian nations

Were fought and held at bay

In exclusive ‘reservations’

At the hotel USA (3)

 

The irony is ‘Thanksgiving’

As a national holiday!

That not a native living

Observes in the USA (4)

 

The nation chants, “…home of the braveâ€,

But remind them, if one may,

It really was home of the slave

To the darker USA

 

It caused a brutal civil war,

Though some would otherwise say;

A vibrant, living racist core

Still breeds in the USA

 

An impassioned vocal adversary

Of a nation gone astray,

Did “By any means necessary…â€

Chastise the USA (5)

 

Another said, “I have a dream…†(6)

But they soon blew him away;

And hopes of a racially utopian scene

In the ghettos of the USA

 

Freedom was stolen, along with title,

From Mohammad Ali (Clay);

Rejecting war he made a revival

That stunned the USA

 

 

PART 2

 

Through a relatively short existence

The chronicles betray

An impertinent persistence

Of a meddlesome USA:

 

The quest for mass destructive-arms

Recalls ‘Enola Gay’; (7)

Her genocidal atomic charms

Were Made in the USA

 

Blameless Japanese Americans

(Referred to as ‘Nisei’),

Were thrown into internments

By a paranoid USA (8)

 

The Korean War evinced no gain,

Except a mighty fray,

And arousal of a new disdain

For an intrusive USA (9)

 

Insurgent Cuban fighters

At the ‘Pigs’ entitled Bay,

Were routed, since inciters

Were a prudent USA (10)

 

‘Napalm’, ‘My Lai’ (11) – Vietnam

Speak messages that convey

The massacres by Uncle Sam

In the name of the USA

 

An abortive hostage rescue attempt, (12)

Becoming of the Green Berét,

The Iranians regarded with contempt

And derision of the USA

 

Over ten score on an airbus tour

Killed by a missile ‘stray’,

Were targets sure for the Naval Corps

And a hit for the USA! (13)

 

Grenada created many fears, (14)

Within their hearts’ inlay:

With bows and arrows (and some spears)

That scared the USA!

 

In Somalia, with Black Hawk aid,

They augmented decay

When thousands died as bullets sprayed

By a charitable USA (15)

 

Attacks on a Sudanese hospital (16)

Earned them a scathing flay,

As another destitute capital

Fell victim to the USA

 

In a Persian War they chose to ignore

Where millions in coffins lay,

The dictator with a chemical store

Was funded by the USA (17)

 

Kuwait was invaded – like Palestine –

But freed without delay;

For abundant crude-oil to refine

As fuel for the USA

 

Rounds of depleted uranium

Did little to allay

Ill-effects on the cranium

Of the soldier USA

 

The debacle staged in Iraq

Is a protracted replay

Of a tendency to overact

By the players: USA

 

Naked prisoners on parade

In pyramid-like array,

Served the purpose to degrade

A shameless USA (18)

 

As bombs fell on Afghanistan

The innocent had to pay

The price – in this impoverished land –

For the nemesis USA:

 

The man was sought in a mountain resort,

Like a needle in a stack of hay;

But if he’s caught is there much thought

Of a peaceful USA?

 

Re-imposing their idea:

“By force, we’ll have our way…â€

Iran is placed, just like Korea,

In the sights of the USA

 

But wavering allies – one by one –

Resign without essay,

Provoking the opinion

To desert the USA

 

Redolent with a Yankee stench,

The world is caused dismay;

Many more – like the dainty French

Despise the USA

 

 

Part 3

 

Many a distant mile they’ve flown

To injuries ‘repay’,

Neglecting to look at their own

Deep in the USA:

 

Rioting youths and police brutality

In South Central L.A.,

Are naked truths to a harsh reality

On the streets of the USA

 

Juvenile shootings in Columbine (19)

Quite suitably portray

A zone of combat and frontline

In the heart of the USA

 

Firearms and ballistics,

As promoted by the NRA (20)

Embody the characteristics

Of a gun-toting USA

 

Gangsters, snipers and drug-dealers

Buy weapons on display;

Perverts, rapists and serial killers

All thrive in the USA

 

A peerless figure for homicide –

On a global-scale survey –

Is clearly a source of national pride

For the criminal USA (21)

 

Intelligence oxymoron,

In the ‘Bureau’ and the CIA

Revealed impotence, hence ‘the War on

Terror’ by the USA

 

The globe is scoured for terrorists,

To halt and catch and slay,

But on closer analysis

They flourish in the USA:

 

Militias training to produce

A Timothy McVeigh, (22)

Continue this day to induce

An explosive USA

 

Doomsday cults and ‘Una-bombers’ (23)

Form much of the outlay,

For those entrusted with the honours

To preside the USA

 

The inane Texan, George .W. Bush,

Has begun to lose his sway,

Requiring but a gentle push

Off the map of the USA

 

An attitude stern with national concern

Is depicted to outweigh

The perpetual yearn for investment return

By the leader of the USA

 

“Regional stability†and “foreign aidâ€

Are an overstated cliché;

But exploitation of the oil trade

Are his goals for the USA

 

A dark cloud rising overhead

Evicts the blue to grey;

Rearing forth its gruesome head:

The repulsive USA

 

Throughout the world

The masses cry, “Depart†and “Go awayâ€;

The banners scream emotions high,

“DOWN WITH THE USA!â€

 

 

Epilogue

 

And on a rented Cuban patch

The abductees all pray

For justice, and a safe detach

From the clutches of the USA

 

(They suffered an atrocity

And want us all to pay,

But I want no proximity

To such a USA)

 

Never, till captivity,

Could I such words relay;

I regard it an epitome

Of the current USA

 

Vulgarity is not my style,

But still I have to say,

This occasion causes me revile

So fcuk the USA!

 

 

___________

 

Notes

 

1. In reference to the Pilgrim Fathers that sailed across from Europe to America on the Mayflower.

2. The politically correct term for the indigenous aboriginal people of America is now ‘Native American’, in contrast to Red ‘Indian’. The latter description was used erroneously by the first Europeans, thinking they had in fact found a Western passage to India. The term remains in wide use to this day.

3. Initially welcomed by the Natives the descendents of the Pilgrim Fathers began a campaign to seize territory. The natives made momentous stands with names like: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo; the resistance by the tribes of Sioux, Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Blackfoot; the battles of Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee and the Trail of Tears (to the Black Hills of South Dakota) resounding throughout their ill-fated history. Eventually they were relegated to reside in ‘reservations’ - lands exclusively set aside for them. These were mostly barren wastelands or mountainous regions that had been rejected by US government.

4. When Francis Scott Key penned the national anthem from inside a British prison on the East Coast, he must have envisaged a country free from repression – unless you were black!

5. Referring to El Hajj Malik al-Shabazz - popularly known as Malcom X; assassinated in the 1960s

6. From the famous speech of Dr.Maritn Luther King; assassinated in the 1960s

7. The name of the American aeroplane that dropped the atomic bombs on the islands of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, educing the Japanese surrender in 1945.

8. In reference to the notorious (and constitutionally declared illegal) internment camps into which hundreds of thousands of Japanese men, women and children were thrown, after the Japanese air raids on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, 1942.

9. With no clear winner after years of war between the Western backed ROK and the Chinese backed North, during the 195?, a line was drawn at the 38th parallel to demarcate the separation of the two Koreas.

10. In 196? at the last hour, insurgents trained and supported by the USA to mount a counter revolution against Fidel Castro’s forces, were deserted by JFK’s USA. The decision was a prudent one, considering the terror faced soon after with the Cuban Missile Crises.

11. In reference to the notorious massacre of villagers – mostly old men, women and children – perpetrated by US Forces during the height of the Vietnam War.

12. Refers to the botched rescue attempt staged by US Special forces, when attack helicopters fell foul of sand storms during an attempt to rescue American hostages, after they were seized at the US embassy in Tehran by Iranian students, during the revolution of 1979.

13. A civilian Iranian airbus, en route from Dubai to Iran, was shot down in 198? over the Persian Gulf by the US Navy as a “mistakeâ€. The death toll was over 200.

14. When the USA invaded Grenada in 198?, they were ridiculed by much of the world community for sending in a hi-tech, mechanised force against badly armed opponents – many of whom were armed with nothing more advanced than bows and arrows!

15. The USA was putatively part of a United Nations mission to alleviate the suffering of the Somali people. Their mission – Operation Restore Hope – soon mutated into all out war, particularly on the ‘Day of the Rangers’, as the Somalis call it: the engagement dramatised in the film “Black Hawk Down†- in which 19 US soldiers and over 1000 Somalis were killed in one day.

16. The al-Shifa Medical centre and pharmaceutical manufacturers was found to have no tangible link to al-Qaida’s attacks against US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-us-Salaam. That small fact did not prevent the USA from striking it with Tomahawk Cruise missiles.

17. An obvious reference to Saddam Hussain, when he had the full blessing of the USA in his internecine war with Islamic Revolutionary Iran, over the possession of the Shatt al-‘Arab river. At that time Iran was regarded as the international pariah by the USA, and so Saddam’s use of chemical weapons was conveniently overlooked.

18. In reference to the Abu Ghraib atrocities perpetrated by US Forces in Iraq.

19. The schoolboy killings in Columbine College left ?? dead, including the perpetrators.

20. The National Rifle Association (headed by the actor Charlton Heston) is one of the most powerful lobbies in US politics. It campaigns tirelessly for the American citizen’s “right to bear armsâ€.

21. Statistics show that the USA is plagued with some of the highest crime rates in the world – homicide being top of the list, sardonically, and particularly in Washington D.C.

22. The man charged and convicted and executed for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1996. He is known to have been an active and trained member of the Michigan State Militia.

23. Cult leader David Koresh (who claimed to be Christ) and his followers were killed in a shoot out, following a protracted siege at Wako in Texas,1993; and the ‘Unabomber’ who bombed universities and medical research centres

[xiinfaniin]

This is a powerful poem: chronicles of US atrocities. Thanks for sharing it.

[J.Lee]

@Dainty French.

 

I absolutely adore the rhyme scheme; consistent and unified all through out the poem

[Blessed]

^yeah it's one of those that end too soon.

 

 

P.S I was on my way to the poetry section but waan lumey, can a Moderator direct me there. Thanks

[AYOUB]

And on a rented Cuban patch

The abductees all pray

For justice, and a safe detach

From the clutches of the USA

Yet Uncle Sam preaches about his 'values'.

 

.