I peer around careful as I troll for a
snack,
Thinking afresh of a "Big Mac Attack,"
And pondering the virtues of takeout
Chinese,
Lest bilious teenager has a trigger to
squeeze.
Or call in a pizza and a movie from Flicks,
And lock all the doors and safe get my
kicks.
Back in the day, this wasn't nearly so
hard.
We made war abroad and at home lay in lard.
Our enemies were folks who traveled uneasy,
Koreans and V-Cong whose English was
queasy,
Panamanians and Grenadians of stoic good
sense,
Who watched us storm beaches and chuck
presidents.
Or we'd send the spooks and muck up their
nations,
Bribe their leaders and get 'em hooked on
big rations
Of economic aid in the form of huge loans,
That none could repay without selling their
bones.
Well, it was progress, it was slick crime
that pays,
And makes us now sigh for those good ol'
days.
'Cause now we've picked fights among touchy
hot folks:
The land of bazaars where Mohammed all
stokes.
Our foes now move, they have flashy i-Phones,
Frequent-flier cards and big Facebook
jones,
Indignant and righteous jihad web pages:
Goth music, blood vids and bearded
web-sages,
All they need is a kid on his luck down,
With rifle or truck and willing to drown,
To give us a taste of Aleppo's black
strife,
If just one mad youth with a well-sharpened
knife,
Against whom we match but thick-vested
teams,
Who can shoot a bad perp but not prevent
schemes.
It's not quite a war and it's more than a
pain,
So now you think twice 'bout seeing a ballgame,
And mull o'er the point of these
blind-angry guys:
"We can decide who'll fall and who'll rise.
About Caliphate West we don't give a pop,
We just want you out and to run our own
shop."
It's a point with some merit and quite
deeply felt,
But try making it heard in the Washington
Belt.
The fact that realities are beyond
understanding
Has never stopped generals or pols from
grandstanding,
For which I expect will go on these
attacks,
Till ISIS wins big and democracy cracks.
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