The Middle East - Ready! Fire! Aim!

When I hear someone suggest the U.S. get involved -

Send our military in and get the problems solved -

Treating war as if it's just another kind of game,

I can't help but think they're shouting: Ready! Fire! Aim!

Arab Spring's resulted in a bitter Arab fall;

Adding yet, more weapons to the mix can't help, at all.

There are quite enough of those, but...  Refugees need food.

Starving people with no hope just sit around and brood.

If we want to see real change and want to play a part,

Giving all those displaced people aid would be a start.

I don't want to arm the rebels - gladly'd feed the poor...

But, until we care for vets we have, don't make some more.

Dear Secretary Kerry... Unsolicited Advice for North Korea

Kim Jong-un keeps ramping up the tensions overseas:

Making plans for bringing Austin, Texas to its knees,

Opening reactors, shutting down a factory,

Threatening to launch a missile if we don't agree.

Seems he wants the sanctions lifted, so he's talking tough.

If the man were rational I'd swear it's all a bluff,

But he doesn't strike me as a very stable guy.

Doesn't seem to care that we could blow Pyongyang sky high.

How are we supposed to deal with someone who's a loon?

Maybe we should send in Dennis Rodman pretty soon.

He can speak the language; he's established a rapport.

Our Marines could land him on the North Korean's shore.

Dennis could explain to Kim Jong-un the basic facts;

Talking tough is one thing, but if North Korea acts,

It will be the Russians and the Chinese who are mad

And they might arrange a swift reunion with his dad.

Across the Pond - Iraq: Lessons Learned

(Photo/Scott Nelson/Getty Images)

10 years after Shock and Awe and here is what we've learned,

Lessons that our military's lives and limbs have earned:

Don't invade until you've finished in Afghanistan.

If you do - don't throw away your post-invasion plan.

Be concerned when someone like Don Rumsfeld starts to smirk.

Don't disband their military; put those men to work.

Be aware that, sometimes, other people might have lied.

Don't install a government because they take your side.

Don't expect to change a culture that is not your own

Just because you get their brutal tyrant overthrown.

Don't suppose the war is over once that tyrant's caught.

Don't proclaim your mission is accomplished when it's not.

Lessons we have yet to learn are: how to walk away,

Where to find the billions that we're gonna have to pay,

Where those weapons of destruction were and where they went...

Seems to me those billions could have been more wisely spent.

Drone Strikes and Due Process

Photo/ProPulica.Org

As a former member of the military, I

More than understand why drones are authorized to fly;

Maybe save a soldier's life with less civilian loss.

No trials for al-Qaeda members? I don't give a toss.

If your aim is to destroy America then, fine;

You have just declared yourself at war with me and mine.

Am I truly horrified when innocents are killed?

Yes.  Despite the fact our troops are trained and highly skilled

People on the side-lines in a war zone tend to die;

Whether by stray bullets or a bomb dropped from the sky.

I suspect that fewer people die when we use drones

And, no matter how much that the ACLU moans,

'though we skipped due process when we killed a citizen

It was not a question if  he'd try something, but when. 

Still, it's not a bad idea if, when the next drone flew

It was first submitted to some judges for review.