London War Resister Support Group

(from spoken word artist Taylor Davy, who performed this piece for our Second Annual War Resisters Benefit Concert at the London Music Club, March 29, 2009. thanks so much for donating your words to LWRSG, Taylor!)

Brothers and sisters
be careful when making your way through
the chaos of the mirrors and smoke,
for the truth is what people can be conditioned
to believe
and the powers that be
have a lot invested
in us
buying into this hoax

They tell us that we must protect
our freedoms
by extinguishing the threat of terror
that grows from the under-nourished soil
of poor lands deprived of proper care
while their long fingers
slide behind our distracted stare
to steal from us the liberties we are
meant to be defending over there

The real agenda
of US foreign policy
is exporting the rule of the corporate system,
deregulating economies,
structurally adjusting the commons
to serve the private sector.
There is no value to them
but that which adds value in the market
and access to oil
has a higher sticker price
than the lives of the loyal
soldiers and civilians
sacrificed for this lofty goal.

Young men and women
are registered and enlisted
Inflated with patriotism
they are sent to ‘install democracy’
into a system
that might have some understandable
cultural resistance
while the leaders that sent them
stay unscathed behind walls of armed protectors
hiding from their past support of the very enemy
now in target
systematically destroying the innocent
with sanctimonious justification
just to gain access to a market.

Brothers and sisters,
your lives are being exploited,
your sweat, flesh, and blood
spilt and drying in the Middle-Eastern sun
is caking and hardening to create a road
to the Caspian Sea
paved with mis-guided intentions
that can never be undone

And the victims are blamed for their new depravation,
misery, and oppression,
because our ‘humanitarian mission’
absolves us of sin
with no need for confession
but, the ironic situation
is that both sides profess
to be acting on the part
of divine inspiration.

They obtained our default permission
to carry out this ‘war’
by keeping us pre-occupied with buying
more and more and more
Invasive occupation of our attention fields
hold us prisoner
with mind-shackling misrepresentations
of the truth, and what is real.
And every citizen is made to feel
the suspicion
because of their expert blurring of fact and fiction
done because the whole deal depends
on the collective trance enduring
encouraged by our commodity addictions.

If we accept the definition of terrorism
to be:
making innocent people fear
for their life security,
so they will bend to the will
of those who don’t use force reluctantly,
than the guilt for global terror
needs to be laid at the door of a house
painted White
and shared by those participating
in this illegitimate fight.

I am neither with them
or with the terrorists,
to say the least,
I am exercising the obvious third option
and I am on the side of
PeAcE

So, continue to resist
this ideology of violent control.
Stand strong in solitude and solidarity
because this won’t be the last time this story will unfold,
no sooner than this war
comes to an end
the cry will resound
“who’s next to defend?”