Sincere Apologies to the World

I get so embarrassed at the way we're now perceived

Overseas; they marvel at how easily deceived

We Americans are proving many of us are -

Throwing our support to Trump: a loud-mouth TV star.

Just like P.T. Barnum, Trump loves stupid people, too...

Angry people who don't care if what he says is true,

Folks who don't believe that we're, already, pretty great.

Folks who are susceptible to messages of hate.

The whole world is getting nervous that this race is close.

(Global leaders using Xanax have increased their dose.)

How could the Americans be falling for this guy?

Someone whom the Russians have been helping on the sly?

Do they really want proliferation? Are they nuts?

ISIL and the Taliban are laughing in their huts.

Trump - who's what the British call a "bounder and a cad" -

He and his supporters make the rest of us look bad.

Smart Policing Doesn't Require Tanks

(The evolution of policing?)

President has stopped the flow of tanks to the police;

They don't need such heavy calibers to keep the peace.

Don't need armored vehicles for stupid, college pranks.

Cops are not the military...  Why would they want tanks?

Situations escalate when citizens perceive 

Local cops as faceless troops with weapons they receive

From a force that used them to attack the Taliban,

Or pursue al Qaeda ('though that didn't go to plan.)

There's a lot of surplus gear we used to hunt them down

That police will get to keep for use in your home town...

It may not be tanks with treads but there is plenty still.

I don't feel protected, though...  To me, it's overkill.

Thank You Australia

Pakistani Taliban descended on a school

Where they opened fire and, as blood began to pool,

Hunted down the children so the death toll's very high...

I can't think about it anymore.  It makes me cry.

Hostages in Sydney (to a Muslim with a gun)

Could have led to riots before all was said and done.

'til the offer thousands of Australians all made;

"I'll ride with you" if you're feeling nervous or afraid.

When the tidings of the Season start to make me blue

I'll think of Australia's act of human kindness, too;

Answering a crime of hate with generosity.

And, if you're in Massachusetts, you can ride with me.

A Public Lynching

(I love Jon Stewart and The Daily Show.)

It appears the country wants to lynch the Bergdahl's boy

I'm convinced it's something that Rush Limbaugh would enjoy.

He is a "deserter and a traitor," FOX News said.

(Taliban has told the kid if he returns, he's dead.)

He has been convicted by a jury of the press

And this "feel-good" story has become an ugly mess.

After his hometown of Hailey came under attack

They've now cancelled plans to welcome SGT Bergdahl back.

As if that weren't bad enough, the press attacked his dad.

I can't listen to them anymore...  It drives me mad.

Leaves his parents out of this.  The only thing they've done

Is to do their very best to try and save their son.

We Leave No One Behind

White House made a deal for getting Bowe Bergdahl released

But the howls about the swap they made have just increased.

Started with the 5 we traded; all were Taliban

And we never warned the people in Afghanistan.

Didn't tell the Congress, either...  Simply went ahead.

'We don't leave our men behind,' Barack Obama said.

Now the claim is: we did not leave Bergdahl, he left us,

That he's a deserter who is not worth all the fuss.

No-one's come right out and said we should have left the kid,

But they're criticizing everything the White House did.

There are snide remarks on FOX about Bowe's father's beard;

Speculation that the Bergdahl clan is kinda weird.

Speaking as the mother of two handsome, teenage boys

All this hue and cry is only pointless, background noise

(Speaking as a veteran, the same is also true)

I'd expect my country would do all that it could do.

Consummatum est

'We can't fix Afghanistan so we are going home;'

Words some army's spoken since the days of Ancient Rome.

Afghans have to be the ones who cure the country's ills.

Groups of fundamentalists are holed up in those hills...

'though they take the winters off (because they'd freeze their buns)

When the "fighting season" starts, the men pick up their guns

Then return to home and hearth and shelter with their clan.

It's become a way of life throughout Afghanistan.

We are not the first to have to face this fact of life -

That, in certain regions of the world, there's constant strife -

We are just the latest, though I doubt we'll be the last.

Countries never seem to learn their lessons from the past.

Voting in Afghanistan

Photo/Courtesy of payam-aftab.com)

Watching the election process in Afghanistan.

Not a lot that separates the candidates who ran;

Most would like a U.S. presence; all of them are men.

Even once they count the votes, won't know the winner then.

I get so embarrassed by the voters in those lines,

Knowing that they're facing more than people waving signs,

They are risking life and limb to go and cast their vote...

I know people who don't go if they can't find their coat.

Afghanistan - Zero Option Isn't One

Hamid Karzai is happy to point out the exit doors. (Photo/The Telegraph)

After all the blood and tears that NATO forces spilled,

After all the thousands of our soldiers who were killed,

After endless battles to suppress the Taliban,

Hamid Karzai says we're free to leave Afghanistan.

(We keep making empty threats that we will walk away.)

Held a Loya Jirga; elders wanted us to stay.

Karzai says he'll let us know; elections will decide,

'though the other candidates all want us by their side.

Don't know why he's stalling or what's going through his mind.

I don't understand why the agreement's not been signed.

We aren't going anywhere with Pakistan next door

(Even though, I'd think, we could launch drone strikes from off-shore.)

There's too much invested; Zero Option's really not...

Not a lot of choices; once we broke it, it was bought.

As we try to do our best to fix this failing state,

Karzai's still in charge, which means, all we can do is wait.

Across the Pond - Afghanistan: The Karzai Conspiracy Theory

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is pointing fingers. (Photo/Telegraph.Co.UK)

Karzai said the U.S. plays an underhanded role;

Working with the Taliban (behind the grassy knoll?)

Offering assistance to extremists 'cause our plan

Is to make them beg us to stay in Afghanistan.

Karzai thinks in areas (as much as 51?)

His men would already have the bad guys on the run

If it weren't for secret plans to make police look bad.

Recently he told the Afghans they were being had.

Maybe I am crazy but I don't believe a word.

It's the most ridiculous conspiracy I've heard.

They were, once, strategically important...  Times have changed.

Nowadays, 'most anywhere's more easily arranged.

Maybe if Chuck Hagel had been killed, the way they tried,

Karzai would believe that NATO leaders haven't lied.

Taliban is no-one's friend and, lest Karzai's forgot,

There's a lot of  U.S. forces out there getting shot.

Across the Pond - Afghanistan's Chi Boys

A Chi boy "entertains" local police commanders. (Photo/Getty Images)

It's incontrovertible; the Taliban won't die.

They'll be back in power when the U.S. says good-bye.

Hard to blame Afghanistan; they've gone from bad to worse.

It's as if that country's been afflicted with a curse.

Riddled with corruption, their police force is a joke;

Pederasts who's minds are rotted by the drugs they smoke,

Arguing that little boys enjoy a soldier's life

And they must screw someone when they aren't with their wife.

NATO forces know the truth; I'm sure it makes them sick.

Cannot fix a broken culture - haven't learned the trick.

Something, though, is very wrong when it's the Taliban

That's the lesser of two evils in Afghanistan.