raybear | Bombs Over Baghdad

The first day of war on the first day of spring. An inauspicious start, I hope. To the war, not the spring, though I fear it might be the other way around.

But I'll be real -- I've mentally been ready for this day since September 11, 2001 at 10 am. I thought we would immediately retaliate and bomb the isht out of the middle east in a fit of rage and revenge. And I mean, there was the Afghanistan campaign -- anyone even remember that? No. I had brief thoughts of our government as ultimate wusses, not even able to own up to their own bloodthirst and revenge, but instead stretching out there ordeal to fit some agenda. Not that I'm surprised.

That's not the point. This is the point.

vfc and

o_w_t_fairies already posted two poems I've been thinking of and would include on my journal, but instead I can just put links. America and Dulce et Decorum Est.

So my contribution is lyrics from a few songs I'm listening to on repeat lately, from OutKast's Gasoline Dreams and Wu-Tang's I Can't Go To Sleep and Rakim's Casualties of War.

from Stankonia: Gasoline Dreams

It's shitty like Ricky Stratton got a million bucks
My cousin Ricky Walker got ten years doing Fed time
On a first offense drug bust, fuck the Holice
That's if your racist or your crooked
Arrest me for this dope -- I didn't weight it up or cook it
You gotta charge the world cause over a million people took it
Look at me, you outta your jurisdiction now your lookin' stupid
Off-i-cer, get off me sir
Don't make me call L.A. he'll have you walking, sir
A couple of months ago they gave OutKast the key to the city
But I still gotta pay my taxes and they give us no pity
About the youngsters amongst us
You think they respect the law
They think they monsters, they love us, reality rappin'
And giving the youth the truth from this booth
And when we on stage we scream
Don't everybody everybody

Don't everybody like the smell of gasoline?
Well burn motherfucka burn American Dream
Don't everybody like the taste of Apple Pie?
We'll snap for your slice of life I'm tellin' ya why
I hear that mother nature's now on birth control
The coldest pimp be looking for somebody to hold
The highway up to Heaven got a crook on the toll
Youth full of fire ain't got nowhere to go nowhere 2 go

from The W: I Can't Go To Sleep

What the fuck is goin on? I can't go to sleep
Feds jumpin out they jeeps, I can't go to sleep
Babies with flies on the cheeks, it's hard to go to sleep
....
I can't go to sleep, I can't shut my eyes
They shot the father at his mom's building seven times
They shot Malcolm in the chest in front of his little seeds
Jesse watched, as they shot King on the balcony
Exported Marcus Garvey cause he tried to spark us
with the knowledge of ourselves, and our forefathers
Ohh Jacqueline you heard the rifle shots cracklin
Her husband head in her hands, you tried to put it back in
AMERICA'S WATCHING, BLOOD STAINED INK BLOTCHES
MEDGAR TOOK ONE TO THE SKULL FOR INTERGRATING COLLEGE
WHAT'S THE SCIENCE? SOMEBODY? THIS IS TRICK KNOWLEDGE
THEY TRY TO KEEP US ENSLAVED AND STILL SCRAPE FOR DOLLARS
....
And just, give me no time to relax, and use my mind to meditate
What should I do? Grab a blunt or a brew?
Grab a two-two and run out there AND PUT THIS FUCKIN VIOLENCE IN YOU?
I can't go to sleep, I can't shut 'em son..

from Don't Sweat the Techinique: Casualities of War

But what are we here for? Who's on the other side of the wall?
Somebody give the President a call
But I hear warfare scream through the air
Back to the battlegrounds, it's war they declare
A Desert Storm: let's see who reigns supreme
Something like Monopoly: a government scheme
Go to the Army, be all you can be
Another dead soldier? Hell no, not me