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A song for BAGHDAD

Submitted by LMH on March 12, 2007 - 1:32am.
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I was raised in Spokane, but have lived in Canada most of my adult life. I remember so clearly the night of March 20, 2003, the beginning of the war in Iraq. I was out driving around and I turned my radio on to hear the 5 o'clock news. The announcer said the US had started bombing Baghdad. I pulled off to the side of the road to cry. I felt so utterly helpless. Being a musician, writing a song seemed about the only way to say what I had to say. Here are the lyrics to "Baghdad":

This is the night we've dreaded,
The news is blaring in the street,
They are dropping bombs on Baghdad,
And they say they'll make no retreat......

As'salaamu Alayakum
As'salaamu Alayakum

Oh there is a man of fury,
And there is a man of fire,
And there are thousands and thousands of others
Willing to take innocent lives........

As'saalamu Alayakum
As'saalamu Alayakum
Peace be with you
Peace be with you

I can hear the Earth, she's weeping,
The Sun and Moon are weeping too,
And we all cry out so helpless,
We don't know what to say or do......

As'saalamu Alayakum
As'saalamu Alayakum
Peace be with you
Peace be with you

If Jesus he could stand here,
With Mohammed, side by side,
They would offer peace to each other,
And in that peace they would abide.....

As'salaamu Alayakum
As'saalamu Alayakum
Peace be with you
Peace be with you

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4th anniversary approaches

Submitted by Jason White on March 12, 2007 - 1:02pm.

LMH, your song reminds me of my own state of mind during the march to war. I cried bitter, frustrated tears as the bombs fell and the hopes and wishes of the 10s of millions who took to the streets around the world in March 2003 were ignored. As we near the 4th anniversary of this useless violence, it is interesting to reflect on where we were then.

I wrote the following on March 17, 2003, three days before the bombing started, when it became clear, absolutely clear, in my mind that the Bush Administration had no intention of solving the issue peacefully and never did.

Quote:
Soaking. Striving. Starving. Discerning. Alarming. Repressed teenage bloodlust, we are powerful and just barely out of control. Now we give in to sadness in the hope that the future could someday feel so bright again. F**king the present. Ignoring the pain. The Pain. The PAIN. THE PAIN! We block it out. It is too much to look at. We medicate ourselves. Media. Food. Sex. Prescription medications of complacency mediocrity and sickening righteousness. We will get through this quickly. It’s just a shot then a cotton ball then a bandaid and a lollipop. All better. Mama’s going to make it all better. Mama please make it all better. Don’t let us hurt us. There is no Them. There is only Us. Breathing. Being. Cycles of sleep and wake. Again and again. Birth death birth. A clothes dryer. A tumbling arc forever folding and mixing and defying any claim to an upper hand. Yet the only fight worth fighting is inside ourselves. To work through it, to evolve, to revolve, as in revolution. How bright is the flame that lights our knowing, our living, our loving. All the movement, all the understanding, the resonance that we try not to grab too greedily comes together in a point that is Everything. Over and over. How to be still. To be re-woven into this fabric, the calamity of the moment is an appendage, a vestigial structure, a stray branch to be pruned and ground up to become our nourishment.

Those were intense times indeed. I hope others will share their reflections of then and now as the anniversary approaches.

Peace please. Jason.