Thursday, September 11, 2014

Armies of Mohammed



images borrowed from bing


Armies of Mohammed

“It is the sacred duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens,
civilian & military, & their allies.”--Osama Bin Laden.

On a cold crisp morning,
         September 11, 2001        three American airliners
were hijacked & like a terrorist trinity, they flew
         as unwilling kamikazes,
                             carrying death mantled in suicide
                             to thousands of innocents;

toppling the twin towers,
                             tearing a cheekbone out of the Pentagon,
while in the third plane passengers turned
                             desperation into bravery,
                             from victims into victors,
as someone uttered “Let’s roll,” 
attacking their abductors with a ferocity
that brought them down to glory
in a quiet farmer’s field in Pennsylvania.

Clearly         for thirteen clenched years,
                              we have slept & lived with unrelenting 
                              Fear, & found ourselves participating in
& supporting the holy War on Terror--in some cases forced
to do so by a handful of overzealous militant Muslim murderers,
whose names have been too often
                              on our tight lips, too often
smearing our media outlets with horrendous
                              acts of unspeakable evil;
Hezbollah out of Lebanon,
Al-Gamaat out of Egypt, the
Taliban & Al-Queda out of Afghanistan, & today the meteoric rise of
ISIS--          stronger, wealthier, more powerful, more savage 
                   & ruthless than seemingly any group before them
as they actively slaughter, rape, rob, pillage, murder, & behead
all that stand in their path, waging such a successful
                   psychological campaign of fear
that armies & militias & freedom fighters
                   abandon their weapons & allegiances
                                   as they flee before them.

Are we all inhabiting the New Millennium Crusades
            predicted by Nostrodamus? 
Have we not been lied to, deceived, manipulated
by our trusted leaders, forced to
                                     send our youth to die out there
in a sand dune Hades, in Medieval villages, or a firebombed
city under siege?       We hear the mantra in our nightmares,
            We do not negotiate with terrorists!

Yet they do not provide us 
with protective head & heart gear
            as a torrent of bull shit rains down upon us daily;
for Obama put boots on the ground yesterday in Iraq,
            in fucking Iraq,
            in a non-combat status--
            boots that will too soon tread in harm’s way.

I seriously fear that too many of us
will not live long enough
to witness closure on all this hysteria.
We can only hope
that our children will.


Glenn Buttkus




Posted over at dVerse Poets MTB

Would you like to hear the author read this Extended Metaphor to you?

23 comments:

Mary said...

Well penned thoughts, Glenn. I wish there was an answer that didn't involve someone's boots on the ground. No one wants that. If not boots on the ground, what is a solution? How will Isis be stopped?

Claudia said...

i wish there was another way - i wish we could live together in peace and all that stupid wars would stop...

Myrna R. said...

You express the anger we all feel, and the fear. Imagine if we put all the energy in hatred towards finding solutions for each other. Can we supend our ouwn hatred, towards the haters, for a moment? We need to get familiar with peace, starting with ourselves. For now, it's all I can think to do.

Beachanny said...

The larger truth is that even for a generation who celebrated peace & love, we were born in war and we will die in war. The nature of man will not be turned aside - there is glory and service there, there is protection and courage there and young men will always be drawn to prove their worth, to stand with comrades and fight for an ideal that brings blight, death, disease, destruction, hardship, and evil. It is the dual nature of man.

brudberg said...

At the moment I can only see it's getting worse.. Though mostly for the Muslims yet.. A world of intolerance and murder.. And I doubt we do it right..

Unknown said...

Compelling and interesting - I agree with Bjorn, as Muslims are paying a huge price because of Isi, killed, tortured etc - in fact my much much too long introduction goes into all that, but I understand where this is coming from.

Anonymous said...

This too will pass. The question is what this is passing to.

Anonymous said...

It is an awful situation. K.

Bodhirose said...

I don't want to get swallowed up in fear...that is what the terrorists want and what our own media perpetuates. I agree with Myrna...we need to get familiar with peace, however we can do that.

Grace said...

Another generation of killers, another generation of war, I hate that its never ending ~ But I also know that the moderates don't approve of such killings and beliefs ~ They follow no beliefs nor Gods but themselves ~

Gabriella said...

Isis scares me and I live thousand of miles away from them. I cannot imagine what it must be like for the Kurds, moderate Muslims, Arab Christians and all the women who are under direct threats of these people.

Wolfsrosebud said...

someone is hired up... i can't say i disagree

Anonymous said...

My sons are 15 and 13, and I fear they will be embroiled in an oil war. ~

Kathy Reed said...

I also fear for our children's children and beyond...what a dual legacy they have inherited...both the worries of the world and the deteriorating state of our country in terms of education, science and more. Such a daunting future they face..beginning their lives with 9/11 and a whole older generation will pass on before they will have a chance to change things...that may be a good thing.

seasideauthor said...

Of course non-combat collateral targets. Excellent write with all the issues in a very complex mixed extension of metaphors. Well done. Excellent way to tell the story.

Anonymous said...

The laws of engagement have become the lead boots we can't keep off the ground -- Obama is no war-monger, but there's no god of peace in this world, no unless you're also entertaining gods of justice and opportunity. Great irony -- and you caught it well in the metaphor -- that on the 13th anniversary of that very unlucky day, we thought it was an apt moment to announce our going back to war. A war that will only ensure the reign of war. Sheesh. Great work here.

Anonymous said...

Strong strong strong and I afraid Glenn. I absolutely got drawn in and spat back out again. Thanks for sharing this

Arathi Harihar said...

i wish there is peace and only peace..

janet said...

Although sometimes war is a necessity, there are in most ways, no winners. You caught the feelings very well.

janet

vb holmes said...

Well said, Glenn--I wish the solution could be as effectively verbalized.

Anonymous said...

Glenn, you're my kind of gambling man!

Katie Mia Frederick said...

Ah..the armies of Jesus and Mohammad run blood red..and i suppose after all is said and done it is the land..food..and oh yes..

..booty..that is the real issue anyway..per anything but love and human social cooperation that runs stronger in fertile lands like ours..whereas the desert brings heat and discontent for the soil that does not see color...

There is so much life where i live..every where i play throughout the year..it is hard not to see a living ONE of love..perhaps i too would looking for virgins if living on desert soils..

..to quench a thirst for life..that mostly lives under longest skirts and head dresses of eyes deep and black as seas of bliss...

Who needs T&A..when ya got those dark black eyes to fall into that long to feel more than covered..spirit....

But anyway i'd rather live on the beach than the desert..and no that fortune of live did not take them to that place of paradise here.

There are enough bikinis here to quench a thirst of any young man's eyes for flesh and blood love. No extremists Jihadists here..just Yahoo and the beach.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Glenn, so powerful, this write. It does feel like light and dark are fighting for control of the planet these days....fantastic writing. Thank you for your deep comment on my blog - you are so right - I cant imagine how excruciating it is for parents all over the world who dont have the standard of living we enjoy...... who love their children and whose hearts ache for them every bit as much as ours – more, even, since they cant even always manage to feed them. I cannot imagine how excruciating that must be. It is a very unbalanced world.