Minnesota Supreme Court: State Can Steal Cars from Innocent Owners

TheNewspaper.com

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of police to confiscate vehicles from owners who have done nothing wrong. The decision narrowed the applicability of an "innocent owner" defense in cases where a vehicle is jointly owned. The high court considered the case of David and Jean Margaret Laase whose then-brand new 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe was confiscated in 2006.

Although David Laase was the Tahoe's primary driver, Jean Laase was driving the SUV alone on May 17, 2007 when she was pulled over and accused of drunk driving. Because Laase refused to submit to a breath test, the $40,000 vehicle was permanently confiscated as punishment for "second-degree criminal test refusal."

David Laase challenged the seizure on the grounds that his property had been taken from him even though he had done nothing wrong. State law appears to provide an exception for such cases.

"A motor vehicle is not subject to forfeiture under this section if its owner can demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the owner did not have actual or constructive knowledge that the vehicle would be used or operated in any manner contrary to law," Minnesota Statutes Section 169A.63 states. "...If a motor vehicle is owned jointly by two or more people, each owner's interest extends to the whole of the vehicle and is not subject to apportionment."

The 4-3 majority on the court, led by Justice Lorie Gildea, concluded that it is sufficient for one owner to be guilty to nullify the innocent owner defense. It did so by construing the statute to mean that "all owners" must be innocent in order to block forfeiture.

"Because interests cannot be apportioned, the legislature seemingly intended that what happens to one owner should happen to all owners," Gildea wrote. "The legislature could have written that, if the vehicle is jointly owned, the owner who is not the offender may assert the defense. In that case, the defense would be available to any owner who is not an offender."

Justice Paul Anderson disagreed with the majority's interpretation, insisting that the ambiguous law should be read in a way limits, not broadens, state power.

"Given that the power to seize a person's property carries with it the potential for misuse, courts of justice must carefully scrutinize how the government exercises that power," Anderson wrote. "The context within which we must conduct our analysis is a disfavored forfeiture statute that we must strictly construe which means that if we have any doubt about the application of the statute, that doubt is to be resolved in favor of joint owner David Laase. Here, some initial doubt with respect to the application of section 169A.63 exists because nowhere does the statute provide that the innocent owner defense is not available to a non-offending joint owner such as David Laase."

The majority countered that it was the job of the legislature, not the courts, to limit the applicability of a law.

"We recognize that the result in this case may be open to question on policy grounds, and we do not disagree with Justice Paul Anderson's view about the importance of private property rights." Gildea wrote. "But in the absence of a constitutional challenge, which we do not have in this case, it is the role of the legislature, not the courts, to rewrite the statute to provide greater protection for private property. The public policy arguments therefore should be advanced to the legislature, the body that crafted the language that compels the result here."

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NO CONVICTION REQUIRED

"The innocent owner defense in Minn. Stat. § 169A.63, subd. 7(d) (2008), does not apply in a case of joint ownership of a vehicle if one of the joint owners is also the offender causing forfeiture of the vehicle."
-Minnesota Supreme Court, Laase v 2007 Chevy Tahoe

The key is titling the vehicle in a corporation, trust or DBA sole proprietorship.

Lawyers never argue the forfeiture law, DUI "consent" (duress) law, and traffic stops are unconstitutional due to the constitutional right to travel.

This lawyer was probably incompetent at DUI law, since only 1% of lawyers are certified DUI specialists.

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"There's a report out tonight that 24-years ago I was apprehended in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a DUI. That's an accurate story. I'm not proud of that. I oftentimes said that years ago I made some mistakes. I occasionally drank too much and I did on that night. I was pulled over. I admitted to the policeman that I had been drinking. I paid a fine. And I regret that it happened. But it did. I've learned my lesson."
—President George W. Bush, CNN Larry King Live, November 2, 2000

"Cheney’s first DWI conviction came in November 1962 when he was 21. According to the docket from Cheyenne’s Municipal Court, Cheney was arrested for drunkenness and 'operating motor vehicle while intoxicated.' A Cheyenne Police Judge found Cheney guilty of the two charges and hit him with a 30-day suspension of his driver’s license. Cheney also had to forfeit a $150 bond posted at the time of his arrest. Further information about the case - such as the defendant’s blood alcohol content or whether Cheney was jailed following the arrest - is unavailable since other court records from that period have been destroyed, according to Wyoming officials. Details of Cheney’s second Wyoming arrest in July 1963, have also fallen victim to time and records destruction practices at the local Municipal Court. But a police arrest card maintained by the Rock Springs Police Department shows that Cheney was fined $100 for his second DWI conviction. The card lists the charge against Cheney, who was then working as a groundman laying power lines, as '11-44,' the criminal code classification for drunken driving, according to Police Chief Neil Kourbelas. At the time of the Rock Springs arrest, Kourbelas said that local cops and judges would not have known that young Cheney was a repeat offender. The police department, Kourbelas said, 'wouldn’t have had the ability to automatically check with other jurisdictions to find out if anyone had prior arrests or convictions. We could have arrested Jack the Ripper back then and had no idea what he had done.'”
-Allen Trapp, GaDUIblog.com, Top 50 DUI Arrests of All-Time, February 16, 2007

"Strictly speaking, a driver can register a BAC of 0.00% and still be convicted of a DUI. The level of BAC does not clear a driver when it is below the 'presumed level of intoxication.'"
—Tennessee Driver Handbook and Driver License Study Guide

"One of the major defects in many methods of blood-alcohol analysis is the failure to identify ethanol to the exclusion of all other chemical compounds. Thus a client with other compounds in his blood or breath may have a high 'blood-alcohol' reading with little or no ethanol in his body. If you look at the warranties - it is sort of interesting - none of the breath machine manufacturers warrant these things to actually test blood alcohol."
—Lawrence Taylor, attorney at law, Drunk Driving Defense, 5th Edition (2000)

"Nancy Benoit also had a blood alcohol reading of .184, although Sperry said the blood alcohol and drug levels could be affected by the decomposition of her body. 'These (blood alcohol) results are not reliable for interpretation because the amount of alcohol in her system could have all come from the decomposition.'"
—Cindy Morley, Fayette Daily News, GBI: Chris Benoit's son was full of Xanax, July 18, 2007

"Let me start with law enforcement contacts with respect to traffic stops, for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The Fifth amendment of the Bill of Rights states that we are not to be forced to incrimnate ourselves. The actual wording is, you cannot be compelled to be a witness against yourself. If you are stopped for suspicion of DUI, these are your rights regardless of the laws of your state. First of all, you are to deny having consumed any alcoholic beverages whatsoever. You are never to admit to having one or two drinks. If you admit to consuming even one drop of alcohol, you open the door to 'probable cause', allowing the police officer to search your car for open containers. Next, you are never to submit to a Field Sobriety Test. You are to refuse to do so. They cannot make you walk the line, they cannot make you balance or anything else. Now when you are arrested, you are to refuse to allow a blood-alcohol test, regardless of what state law 'requires', such as revocation of driving priveleges for a period of time. That's an attempt to compel you to be a witness against yourself. Supreme Court decisions in this area are very specific with regards to your rights as folows: Lefkowitz vs Turley, and the Fifth Amendment, provides that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, and permits him to refuse to any any other qustions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings."
—George Gordon Law Hour, "The Policeman is not your friend - He is your adversary," October 30, 2007

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-President Abraham Lincoln (Rothschild), unlicensed attorney at law

"I saw two officers as before, who rode up to me, with their pistols in their hands, said God damn you stop, if go an Inch further, you are a dead Man, and swore if we did not turn in to that pasture, they would blow our brains out. Major Mitchel of the 5th Regt clapd his Pistol to my head, and said he was going to ask me some questions, if I did not tell the truth, he would blow my brains out. I told him I esteemed myself a man of truth, that he had stopped me on the highway, & made me a prisoner, I knew not by what right; I would tell him the truth; I was not afraid."
—Paul Revere, owner of RevereWare¨, sworn affidavit: "Memorandum on Events of April 18, 1775" (declassified Top Secret), while under arrest (and subsequent escape) from Redcoat martial-law traffic police at Minute Man National Historic Park, Paul Revere Capture Site, on the eve of the American Revolutionary War and kicking off the Battle of Lexington and Concord, against the army, navy and courts of King George III, heriditary dictator of England who attempted "gun control" by an Assault Weapons Ban of defensive 50-caliber muskets and cannon, Paul Revere's Ride, by David Hackett Fischer

101 Ways to Avoid a Drunk Driving Conviction

THE PROHIBITION TIMES
America's Secret History of the Current Prohibition of Alcohol
A Responsible Driver's Survival Guide

Obama overthrows USA today at Hopenhagen

WELCOME TO YOUR WORLD GOVERNMENT - British Lord Monckton beaten unconscious by UN cops at frozen Global Warming Con in Hopenhagen (censored by media mafia), Billary Clinton Rockefeller pays $100-Billion/year Global Warming tax to United Nations, Italian PM Berlusconi beaten to a bloody pulp by voters twice in 3 days, Obama signs UN treaty to overthrow US sovereignity and create world dictatorship at frozen COP15 Global Warming Tax Con.




Lesbian mass-murdering traitor Billary Clinton Rockefeller orders US taxslaves to pay $100-Billion/year tax to United Nations Corporation and IMF World Bank

United Nations says Global Warming causes prostitution

Copenhagen mayor orders free prostitutes for all delegates at United Nations Global Warming Tax Con





Welcome to your world government, democracy be damned!


Italians vote on El Berlusconi's face


Italians vote on Mussolini's fate

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COP15 UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL GOVERNMENT GLOBAL WARMING FART TAX TREATY - "Requires reversing the trend of increasing global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 at the latest. For this purpose, the Parties shall collectively reduce global emissions by at least 85 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050. The government will be ruled by the COP, and of an Executive Board responsible for the management of the new funds and bodies. The financial mechanism of governance shall operate under the authority the COP. All Parties shall initiate forest law enforcement, governance and trade measures. The financial mechanism shall operate and function under the authority, governance and guidance of, and be fully accountable to, the COP. Coherence in the global financial architecture under the authority and governance of the COP and coordination between various financial resources and individual funds shall be ensured. The COP shall appoint a board, which shall function under the authority and guidance of and be accountable to the COP, to manage the financial mechanism and the related facilitative mechanism, funds and bodies."

COP.
2. to steal; filch. 3. to buy (narcotics). 4. cop out, a. to avoid one's responsibility, the fulfillment of a promise, etc.; renege; back out. b. cop a plea. 5. cop a plea, a. to plead guilty or confess in return for receiving a lighter sentence. b. to plead guilty to a lesser charge as a means of bargaining one's way out of standing trial for a more serious charge; plea-bargain.
-Random House Unabridged Dictionary 2006

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LORD MONCKTON KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS BY UNITED NATIONS DEATH SQUAD AT FROZEN GLOBAL WARMING CON

by Lord Monckton, member House of Lords in British Parliament, reporting from frozen Copenhagen COP15 Global Warming Con

Today the gloves came off and the true purpose of the “global warming” scare became nakedly visible.


Chavez calls Obama "THE DEVIL"

Hugo Chavez, the Socialist president of Venezuela, blamed “global warming” on capitalism – and received a standing ovation from very nearly all of the delegates, lamentably including those from those of the capitalist nations of the West that are on the far Left – and that means too many of them.



Previously Robert Mugabe, dictator of Rhodesia, who had refused to leave office when he had been soundly defeated in a recent election, had also won plaudits at the conference for saying that the West ought to pay him plenty of money in reparation of our supposed “climate debt”.

Inside the conference center, “world leader” after “world leader” got up and postured about the need to Save The Planet, the imperative to do a deal, the necessity to save the small island nations from drowning, etc., etc., etc.

Outside, in the real world, it was snowing, and a foretaste of the Brave New World being cooked up by “world leaders” in their fantasy-land was already evident. Some 20,000 observers from non-governmental organizations – nearly all of them true-believing Green groups funded by taxpayers – had been accredited to the conference.



However, without warning the UN had capriciously decided that all but 300 of them were to be excluded from the conference today, and all but 90 would be excluded on the final day.

Of course, this being the inept UN, no one had bothered to notify those of the NGOs that were not true-believers in the UN’s camp. So Senator Steve Fielding of Australia and I turned up with a few dozen other delegates, to be left standing in the cold for a couple of hours while the UN laboriously worked out what to do with us.

In the end, they decided to turn us away, which they did with an ill grace and in a bad-tempered manner. As soon as the decision was final, the Danish police moved in. One of them began the now familiar technique of manhandling me, in the same fashion as one of his colleagues had done the previous day.

Once again, conscious that a police helicopter with a high-resolution camera was hovering overhead, I thrust my hands into my pockets in accordance with the St. John Ambulance crowd-control training, looked my assailant in the eye and told him, quietly but firmly, to take his hands off me.

He complied, but then decided to have another go. I told him a second time, and he let go a second time. I turned to go and, after I had turned my back, he gave me a mighty shove that flung me to the ground and knocked me out.

I came to some time later (not sure exactly how long), to find my head being cradled by my friends, some of whom were doing their best to keep the police thugs at bay while the volunteer ambulance-men attended to me.

I was picked up and dusted me off. I could not remember where I had left my telephone, which had been in my hand at the time when I was assaulted. I rather fuzzily asked where it was, and one of the police goons shouted, “He alleges he had a mobile phone.”

In fact, the phone was in my coat pocket, where my hand had been at the time of the assault. The ambulance crew led me away and laid me down under a blanket for 20 minutes to get warm, plying me with water and keeping me amused with some colorfully colloquial English that they had learned.

I thanked them for their kindness, left them a donation for their splendid service, and rejoined my friends. A very senior police officer then came up and asked if I was all right. Yes, I said, but no thanks to one of his officers, who had pushed me hard from behind when my back was turned and had sent me flying.

The police chief said that none of his officers would have done such a thing. I said that several witnesses had seen the incident, which I intended to report. I said I had hoped to receive an apology but had not received one, and would include that in my report. The policeman went off looking glum, and with good reason.

To assault an accredited representative of a conference your nation is hosting, and to do it while your own police cameramen are filming from above, and to do it without any provocation except my polite, non-threatening request that I should not be manhandled, is not a career-enhancing move, as that police chief is about to discover to his cost.

Nor does this incident, and far too many like it, reflect the slightest credit on Denmark. We must make reasonable allowance for the fact that the unspeakable security service of the UN, which is universally detested by those at this conference, was ordering the Danish police about. The tension between the alien force and the indigenous men on the ground had grown throughout the conference.

However, the Danish police were far too free with their hands when pushing us around, and that is not acceptable in a free society. But then, Europe is no longer a free society. It is, in effect, a tyranny ruled by the unelected Kommissars of the European Union. That is perhaps one reason why police forces throughout Europe, including that in the UK, have become far more brutal than was once acceptable in their treatment of the citizens they are sworn to serve.

It is exactly this species of tyranny that the UN would like to impose upon the entire planet, in the name of saving us from ourselves – or, as Ugo Chavez would put it, saving us from Western capitalist democracy.

NOTE: This was the same day Lord Monckton appeared on TruTV with Governor Jesse Ventura's Global Warming CONsPiracy Theory:

Want to know what combat is like?

By John Lee
executive producer
Pirate News TV & Radio Show

RE: Want to know what combat is like? From an Operation Iraqi Freedom Vet. By Corporal Lawrence, C. Reposted May 2005.

Compare with: American Sniper poem



That Corporal Lawrence sounds like a PR psyop. Rule #1 in war is IFF -- Identify Friend and Foe, especially what nation the enemy is really from.

I've watched videos of Nick Berg getting his head sawed off his body while he screamed, and never wanted to kill so bad in my life.

Israeli Mossad spy Nick Berg was killed by CIA in Abu Ghraib prison where he worked. Read about the Israeli false-flag attack to sink USS Liberty to blame Egypt, as part of Pentagon's Operation Northwoods false-flag "terror" attacks on USA. Israeli Mossad spies were the first terrorist bombers arrested in USA on 9/11/2001 dressed as Arabs celebrating the attacks.

I've seen the Iraqi people... totally disregard our presence and "walk all over us".

It's an illegal 19-year invasion, what would YOU do if USA was occupied by a foreign enemy that was destroying your nation, robbing you blind and genocided 2.6-million people so far?

"I've searched a car we stopped in sector and found an Oklahoma license plate in the trunk with '04 tag stickers on it."

This is because the cars are stolen in USA for use in carbombs in Iraq, says FBI.

99% of cars stolen in USA are stolen by cops and their towing contractors, says 100s of lawsuits and criminal prosecutions of cops and towtruckers.

Carlyle Group is the largest towing contractor in the world, owned by the Bushes, Bin Ladens and queen of England.

NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani Knight of the British Empire's daddy was a Mafia enforcer in Sing Sing prison for armed robbery, and his cousin was a Mafia hitman running NY state's largest cartheft/hijack ring, until FBI gunned him down.

Knox County Tennessee sheriff Joe Jenkins was convicted and sent to prison for stealing $1-million in cars from dealers per day. Knox County TN sheriff Tim Hutchison confessed to stealing cars from West Town Mall with convicted copkiller towtrucker Roy Lee Clark, among many other of Teflon Tim's confessed felonies, plus his 6 criminal convictions for perjury as sheriff and a $17-million bank robbery bankruptcy from his car dealership in Oak Ridge in partnership with chopshop towtrucker Hinton (now he's running for mayor).

So if your vehicle is stolen or you're blown up in a bomb, the US govt probably did it. Ask the 9/11 families.

My job in the US military was controlled demolition of active US military bases and aircraft using nukes, and targeting nukes at our allies and troops in Western Europe. This is a common job for 1,000s of US troops. I was in Operation El dorado Canyon, the unprovoked First Strike sneak attack on Libya to reportedly assassinate the president. But the chief of public affairs for the US Marine Corps at the Pentagon said US special forces rescued President Qadaffi a few hours before the USAF jets bombed his home, killing his daughter. On BBC TV I got to see the brains of a dead woman bombed by USA as she slept in her home, then went to work on the returning jets in England.

When my wife was in the same Iraq War 19 years ago, she led a successful mutiny that got the top-ranked USAF 4-star general fired while he was leading Desert Storm. That was because the Pentagon armed Iraq before, during and after the war as part of Iran-Contra, which is still the case today, proven by 200,000 missing weapons given to the "enemy" this year, and a 1,500% increase in production of heroin in Afghanistan. My wife was disabled by "medical school experiments" at Fort Leavonworth, but VA stole her disability pension of $80/month (as "compensation" for never being able to have babies), as done to 95% of all disabled retired veternas. Injured or dead soldiers must repay their enlistment bonueses, and pay for bullet-proof vests with bullet holes.

The war is not in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's in USA, with wide-open borders, a 50-million-man invading army of illegal aliens with immunity from deportation, and the US military ordered to stand down during the "terrorist" attacks on 9/11/2001. The enemy is the fed govt Washington DC and all those who conspire with them, along with the banksters who own USA and the 53-nation British Empire which includes Israel. Mexico and Canada are also mortal enemies of USA and must be defeated, along with the NWO British Empire that bombed USA for 240 years and burned the White House.

Arabs didn't attack USA on 9/11/2001. Illegal alien Hussein Obama is not president of anything. Break your brainwashing, before it's too late. Then DO something. BTW the Soldier's Manual for Common Tasks and Uniform Code of Military Justice requires all soldiers to disobey all illegal orders, and requires all soldiers to immediately arrest all superiors who give illegal orders.

We need you in USA to defend USA. You cannot do that if you volunteer for military slavery to the New World Order dictatorship. Just say NO to treason.

ALARM RED THIS IS NOT A DRILL

September 911 Surprise

911 Con


Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi demands the immediate arrest, trial, and execution of George W Bush, Billary Clinton Blythe Rockefeller and all their White House co-conspirators for mass murder. Over 80,000 US Gulf War troops dead and 700,000 disabled, plus over 2.6-million genocided Iraqis and Afghanis in the non-stop 19-year war.

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"In Haig's presence, [Sir Heinz 'Henry'] Kissinger [Kosher Knight of the British Empire, who was George Bush Jr's choice to run the 9/11 Commission] referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy."
-Jew Lt Bob Woodward US Naval Intelligence in Vietnam and for Joint Chiefs of Staff at Pentagon for General Alexander Haig at the Nixon White House, The Final Days, Chapter 14, page 194


British Opium Wars: CIA/MI6 heroin production increased 1,400% since Blair/Bush/Obama invaded Afghanistan

"As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger, filtered down through General Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger, who is also here. We have a chain of command in the National Security Council that exists today."
-Major General James Jones, Obama's National Security Advisor


How to strip for your man by US Army PFC Hayes, who was raped by a US soldier in Iraq. Music by Lords of Acid: The Most Wonderful Girl.

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government. Soldiers are dumb animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
-Sir Heinz "Henry" Kissinger Kosher Knight of the British Empire, homosexual rapist of US troops according to Kay Griggs

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
-Sir Heinz "Henry" Kissinger Knight of the British Empire, George W Bush's nomination for director of his 9/11 Coverup Commission, whose BNL Bank in Atlanta was raided by FBI for illegally arming Iraq DURING the Iraq War

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Skidmark Bob -- PopDefect Radio Fallujah Mix

Want to know what combat is like?

By Corporal Lawrence, C. [source unknown]

Well, I am still here in Iraq, and with regards to this war, I can say I have seen and done some amazing things.
I've seen both cowards and heroes both young and old.
Been both confident and terrified, both at the same time.
I've grown to love and hate people with a fierce passion.
I've given food to the starving, and water to the thirsty.
I've seen the pain and uncertainty in a man, woman, and child's face right before they died.
I've seen the terror in a man's face when my weapon was pointed at his head.
I've looked a man in the eyes right before I put a sandbag over his head.
I've tasted the burn of OC/pepper spray as I sprayed a man in the face.
I've learned Arabic from a 12 year old girl who was my friend.
I've waved hello back at so many passing cars, I felt like I was famous.
I've been on TV 4 times, then watched the media tell lies about us.
I've been in 3 papers, and was amazed at the inaccuracy of my story.
I've seen dozens of marriages fall apart on both ends.
I've seen Iraqis cry, they were so happy that we were here.
I've had Iraqis swear me up and down because I had to search them.
I've heard the launch of mortar rounds as they left the tube.
I've seen those same mortar rounds blow up around me and my friends.
I had a friend show me pictures of his kids, and get killed the very next day.
I've heard the pop-pop-pop of gunfire, and then the ping-ping-ping as it hit around me.
I've seen people afraid to pull the trigger, and not kill...and I've seen people kill when they shouldn't have pulled the trigger.
I've seen men in the cross hairs of the scope mounted on my rifle and I've pulled the trigger so they will never ever be seen again.
I've laid countless hours on my cot trying to sleep but couldn't, because the helicopters were to loud, explosions were to close, their was to much gunfire.
I've taken prisoners, guarded prisoners, and released prisoners.
I've lost weight because my stomach couldn't handle the food here.
I've knocked on people's doors, kicked down people's doors, and almost shot off someone's door. I've sat on a rooftop for 53 days straight looking for bad guys, and learned what patience really is.
I've lost all sense of privacy, but grew closer than a brother with my squad and platoon.
I've cleaned my weapon more than I have cleaned my clothes, because it was more important. I've learned to appreciate all the things I once took for granted.
I've never worked so hard and got paid so little in my life, but even still worked harder.
I've watched videos of Nick Berg getting his head sawed off his body while he screamed, and never wanted to kill so bad in my life.
I remember when a young kid that called us "sadiq-i" (friend) brought us food each day at a checkpoint, and remember when a suicide bomber killed him and 18 other people days later.
I remember a crazy lady telling me lies to waste my time for no reason.
I remember a pretty girl secretly waving hello to me so nobody would see, fearing ridicule.
I remember the screams of people when a restaurant exploded with innocent people inside.
I'll never forget the smell of burning flesh for as long as I live...ever.
I've seen Iraqi people fight alongside us one minute, then fight against us the next.
I've captured dozens of weapons, some of which were gold plated.
I've been in a car accident that would've killed me if I wasn't riding in an armored hummer.
I've smiled and scowled, laughed and yelled at different crowds of people.
I've seen a 13 year old prostitute bring money home to her father to live.
I've smelled the crisp air of a new morning, and the soot and stench of cordite the next morning. I've been so hot, that I stopped sweating and my body started to shut down.
I've been so tired and worn out, but still couldn't sleep for days at a time.
I've seen people accidentally shoot their weapons and almost kill people, and I've seen people intentionally shoot their weapons and kill people.
I've never counted or carried so much ammunition in my life, and I've been around the world more than once or twice with the military.
I've sat back and enjoyed an ice cold Coke, and other times I've called on the radio begging for a resupply of water and food because we were starving literally.
I've seen guys "baby" their weapons, and I've seen guys treat them like hell, fully knowing it was the only thing that might save their lives.
I've said "I hate here" a thousand times, and heard it said a million more times.
I've seen a platoon leader curl up in the fetal position out of terror during a firefight, and a private in that same platoon fight like a savage for his life.
I've seen a medic choke-up and not be able to do his job, and an infantryman next to him bandage up a wounded child.
I've had kids throw rocks at me because I didn't have any chocolate candy to give them.
I almost shot a 14 year old kid that pulled a gun on another kid, the toys look very real here. I've seen kids play in a virtual minefield of explosives and ordinance like they were at Disneyland.
I've heard shots fired and hit the ground, ducked, jumped behind cover, and flat out ignored them I've seen "new guys" in units come here so scared they point their guns at everything they see.
I've been on missions so long, that I've come back to my FOB (base camp) with a full beard.
I've sat up late at night waiting for a friend to come back from a patrol that got hit, like a parent waits for their child who's been out all night.
I've made best of friends with a 17 year old kid, and a 47 year old man, and talked to both like we were old high school buddies.
I've cleaned my friend's blood off of his equipment, and turned it in because he was killed in an explosion hours before.
I've seen enough different people's body parts, that I could put them all together and make a completely new body with them.
I've laughed and joked with Australian soldiers, had conversations with British soldiers, and drank chi (tea) with Arab soldiers.
I've seen how well our bulletproof vest work, and they do stop bullets.
I've read the bible and figured I am in, or near the 'Garden of Eden'; but it hardly looks like paradise to me.
I've seen fisherman fishing, kids swimming, boats and dead bodies floating in the Tigris River. I've asked myself dozens of times "Why am I here", but I know the answer, and I know if asked...I'd come back again no question.
I've missed my family and still do, and I regret not spending as much time with them as I should've before I left.
I've figured out who my real friends are back home, because they have taken the time to write me a letter or an e-mail.
I felt sold out by my chain of command because I made a decision to shoot, and sat through an 'inquisition' for making a judgment call that I would again.
I've gone on my 2 weeks of R&R and enjoyed the downtime, however was anxious to get back to this strange place.
I've been to far too many memorial services of our fallen brothers, and choked up everytime, even if silently so nobody could tell I've seen an enemy sniper cause so much pandemonium, that without a shot being fired the sniper was winning a psychological victory over us.
I've traded 'war stories' with my best friend who worked in the private sector up north through countless e-mails.
I've been disgusted by the double standard that I have seen day in and day out.
I've lost a friend to an enemy sniper's bullet and felt helpless.
I've been given a urinalyses test because people were doing drugs over here.
I've seen the Iraqi people respect the military, and I've seen them totally disregard our presence and "walk all over us".
I've searched a car we stopped in sector and found an Oklahoma license plate in the trunk with '04 tag stickers on it.
I've felt my stomach knot and my heart skip a beat when a vehicle speeding by, cut his wheel and came directly at me...I was going to be blown-up for sure I thought.
I've been terribly sick, but continued to work and patrol through it...mission first.
I've gotten packages and letters from people I don't know, and a smile was brought to my face each time.
I've had my comfort zone tested and violated by these people time and time again.
I've had Iraqis throw fireworks at me on New Years, thinking it was funny that I couldn't tell it wasn't a gunshot.
I've come to the conclusion that some soldiers here will return home by the grace of God, and other soldiers will come home simply because the man to the left or right of him did their job. I've seen lousy soldiers awarded medals for no reason at all, and other soldiers who rightfully deserved recognition for gallantry under fire passed over with not even a pat on the back.
I've seen the clear difference between competence and arrogance in my leadership.



More troops suffering severe head wounds-Injuries prove devastating for doctors, too

---

Iraq War Pigs by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, with Israeli and Blackwater CIA snipers shooting US soldiers, just like Israeli troops attacked USS Liberty to blame Arabs in Pentagon's Operation Northwoods

American Sniper

A Poem By Darryl Mason, 16 June 2007

1.

"Kill one man, terrorise a thousand"
the instructor had pointed to the sign
on the wall at the school where I learned to kill
Camp Pendleton, California
it didn't have a fancy name, this school
like 'tactical depopulation training'
we called it what it was
Sniper School
three months training
then they sent me here

"Kill one man, terrorise a thousand"
he smiled when he read the sign to me
my scores were good
he told me he was proud of me
never heard a man say that to me before
I see him now still tapping that sign
to a roomful of kids who are now
mostly dead
or wounded

"Kill one man, terrorize a thousand"
That's what the sign said
So I learned it
and I loved it and now
I'm living it


2.

a rooftop in Fallujah
came in by helicopter
Black Hawk at full crank
flying low enough to collect television aerials
others in my squad are on other buildings
on other rooftops
close by
we're alone here
not enough of us to go in pairs
not today, they said
you'll be okay
I know I'll be okay
I'm a fucking killing machine

we're alone
but we should be able to get each other out
if we have to
that's what they kept telling us on the way in
"we don't leave our boys behind"
if we need them
they'll come
they'll come and take us home

I look at my watch and work out the time
difference
it's Saturday morning in America
mom will be making pancakes
I can remember the smell
I can imagine myself still in bed
at home
in bed, that warm breakfast smell
coming up the stairs and into my room
if I think about that smell long enough
I can taste those pancakes


3.

I waited five hours before I did anything
to stir them from their homes
waited for my orders
got them
did it
one man
a thousand terrified
they don't know where I am
the radio has gone silent
I wait here for them to tell me
what to do next

My rifle is a M40A3 bolt action
I already knew this rifle
long before I held it in my hands
for the first time
I've used it on sniper mission in Iraq before
even though this is my first tour
I played the video game the recruiter gave me
for free
I was just walking through the mall
"here, this is for you"
I took the game home
I played the game, a few thousand times
American Army
and I didn't stop playing it
until I learned all the weapons,
all the ambush scenarios,
all the escape scenarios,
all the sniper missions
I played the game
of being a sniper in Iraq
same gun, same place
but now it's for real

when I was playing the game I never felt
the hot electricity feeling
that I feel right now
that makes me feel so alive
but so tired
and when I played the game
I didn't feel the sand
that's inside my underwear
wearing away my skin
when I played the game
I didn't feel the sticky heat
or the cold sweat
that lives on us all now
like a second skin
it was only a game

4.

they told me the enemy wears disguises
the terrorists
my commander told me they dress as women,
as children, as old men
"every fucking donkey cart
can transport weapons", he said
"every ambulance can transport insurgents
this is free fire"
but my orders for now are simple
if I don't like the look
of someone down there on the street
I can take them out
"Do they know they have to stay inside?"
I asked on the helo coming here,
to my rooftop in Fallujah
but nobody answered
"Just pick them off when you see them"
My CO said that
a direct order
I saw him before I fast roped down to my rooftop
he looked me straight in the eyes like
he knew he would never see me again
"God loves you," he said
and that was all
then I was out and heading
down

4.

I remember last week
the blur of days
never enough sleep
boredom like a fog
we cleared the outer ring of
Falljuah streets
on foot
block by block
kick in every door
turn over every bed
empty every drawer
the women here have the best
underwear and lingerie
I've ever seen

last week :
our sound truck is parked a few blocks away
from where we foot patrol down another
ghost town alley
the sound truck is jacked
the super fat
opening riff
of AC/DC's 'Hell's Bells' blasts
through Fallujah back streets
and alleys full of dusty echoes
the first time I heard that riff
maybe an hour ago
I cheered and punched the sky
just like I did at the AC/DC gig
I saw when I was 14
dad took me for my birthday
but now Hell's Bells' is on again
solid wall of noise from the sound truck
14th time today I've heard it
and it doesn't sound right
the sound is supposed to scare the haji
but ain't they heard AC/DC before?
maybe they ain't heard it like this
this loud this fat this solid
I've never heard it like this before either
uh
it's starting to make me feel
sick
we did something to the sound
it was remixed by psy-ops
to really fuck with them
get inside their heads
scramble their brains
but we didn't have enough ear plugs
so I missed out
don't matter anyway, that noise
gets into your bones
and your bowels
it lives inside you
like a virus

A few dozen Saturday mornings ago
back home
I sat in my room and played that AC/DC riff
on my guitar
until my mum yelled at me to quit
I just turned it up louder

this sound makes you sick
it vibrates inside you
even when the sound cones aren't pointed
at you, it still gets you
it goes through the walls
some guy back at the base calls the sound truck
"The Shitinator"
if they really crank that fucker up
you just might crap yourself to death

it's not funny now
Angus' guitar gongs inside my skull
and the words of 'Hell's Bells'
mean something different
here
there's a line, a lyric
I just heard it again
"you're only young but
you're gonna die"
we play it to scare the haji
but it scares us, too
motherfucker change the fucking tune

5.

my family had a farm for 150 years
we fought in wars
then we farmed the land
then we fought in wars
my father took me back to our farm once,
after we sold it to pay his health care bills
we went back to see the land
that used to be ours
he took me into the north field
and we cut our thumbs
like his dad had done with him
and his grandad had done
with his grandad
thumbs bleeding, we let the scarlet
flow
dripping into the dirt
purple mud
we let our thumbs drip
so our blood would stay in the soil
even if we weren't there to farm it anymore
"you leave your memory here now"
my dad said
"blood and earth,
always reunite"

6.

I fell asleep
I can't do that
went dreaming of ten years back
five months back
one week back
I fell asleep
I can't do that
gotta stay sharp on
my rooftop in Fallujah
but the go-go pills aren't working
not like they used to
the meth is better, sharper
but our supply went up
when the ammo dump got hit
last month

radio crackles, a sweep and clear
coming through
I look over the edge of the rooftop
and watch the front end of another unit
enter the block
the doors get kicked in
the angry men get hooded
the women only get slapped
when they won't shut the fuck up
or when they start grabbing
who knows what the fuck they're all
saying

we hit them with the sound truck
we hit them with our light shows
the holograms that look like
ghosts
running through their streets
but they never want to leave
"get the fuck out of here!"
you can scream in their faces
but they stay
like their souls are glued to the floors
of their homes
sometimes the special units let loose
the dogs that were mixed with pigs
in some labs
so the stories go
fucking nightmares in the living daylight
slobbering up your stairs
they'll eat your liver
if you let them bite through your flesh
"Get the fuck out of here!"
but the hajis don't want to go
so we have to go in
we always have to go in

7.

on my rooftop in Fallujah
sometimes they call to me
in weird English, bad accents
stuff they've learned off satellite TV
they call to me to come down
to give up
they don't want to kill me
they say
you're all alone and no-one's coming
to get you out
they say
we'll slit your throat until we see your
spine
they say
none of it bothers me
I did three days in a shipping container
with a soundtrack of babies screaming
and dogs getting tortured
and calfs in a slaughterhouse
screaming while they watched
their cow mothers get gutted
alive
sounds of misery and terror
I can block out human voices
their threats mean nothing to me

but then I hear her voice
a woman's voice
A New Yorkish accent
like a babe from Sex And The City
she calls to me
fuckit, she sounds hot
"I lived in New York City for twelve years"
she says
"I'm an American, just like you"
oh fuck
"I came back here to be with my family
when I knew the war was going to begin"
I don't want to hear her voice
but I need to
it's the only familiar thing here
this alien world
this video game world
the game the recruiter gave me taught
me how to target
how to track
how to choose a body part to blow
away
the game had Iraqis chanting, singing
but I never heard no hot-sounding
New York chicks
in that game
calling to me

"I know you're scared, I'm scared
too"
she says
but she sounds strong
defiant
"I know you don't want to kill me
and my family and my friends
we are your friends
we understand they made you come here
we both have the same enemy
don't we?"
shutupshutupshutthefuckup
"if you come down and you come to my door"
she says
"then we must let you enter our home and
you must eat with us
even if you are our enemy"
the food they cook
always smells good
better than what we get
"you can come and eat with us"
she says
"you will be our guest
and we will look after you
"this is the way it has been
for as long as my people have lived"
and I can smell the food
and it smells good, it smells
warm
"please come down and eat with us"
I want to but I can't
"we have soup, you can eat then
sleep, no-one else has to know"
sleep, I've forgotten what that is
real sleep
when you don't wake up every
twenty minutes with a jolt
when another five mortars
fall into the Green Zone
"come down and eat with us, please?
we forgive you"
she says
"can you hear me?
yes, I can
"we forgive you"


8.

they told us
in the first training week
over and over
the old man with the dead eyes
he said it again and again
"Saddam did 9/11
he bombed America with our own planes"
Saddam, Osama
Osama, Saddam
Saddama, Oddam
they got together
they made 9/11 happen
that's what they told us
they showed us some movie that
explained it all
Saddam did 9/11
that's why we came here
to get Saddam, get rid of that fuck
for what he did to us
"we fight them in Iraq
so we don't have to fight them at home"
Saddam did 9/11
so we do Saddam
and every fucker like him
justice out of a double-barrel

But when I got here
nobody else believed that shit
about 9/11
that Saddam and Osama were
parking their cars in the same garage
someone said, they laughed and they said
"They got your head all filled up with their
lies
you sorry fuck"


9.

up here on my rooftop
in Fallujah
watching the dawn
so beautiful
never seen anything so beautiful
like soft fire in slow motion
I wait and I sit and I think
not about things I want to think about
things just come into my head
my dad singing bits of old
Bruce Springsteen songs
then just one line
over and over
"is a dream a lie if it don't come true
or is it something worse?"
he used to hum-mumble that line a lot
before he killed himself
like a mantra
maybe like a prayer

my dad drove an armoured bulldozer
in the First Gulf War
he was there for work as an engineer
but he drove that dozer better
than the guys trained to do it
he used that bulldozer to push huge walls
of sand
into trenches filled with men and boys
Iraqi Republican Guard
they volunteered so their daughters
wouldn't get raped
my dad pushed the sand over them
he said they hugged each other down there
in those trenches
he said most of them looked like
little boys
"they didn't know what the fuck
was happening to them"
he told me
but I only thought about the way he described
the sound of the bullets dinging off the dozer blade
he buried hundreds of men and boys
in those trenches
his friends buried thousands more
they were alive when the sand was pushed
over them
but not for long
and then dad and his crew, they
smoothed the sands of that desert
they didn't leave a trace
there were no bodies left to see
when they were done
they were the enemy
"I buried them alive"
he said one night
he was drunk
he woke me long after midnight
to tell me what he did, back then
I was 12
"I looked back as we drove away,"
he said, his voice shivering
but that night was warm
he shivered and said
"where there had been thousands of men
in trenches, ready to defend their country
when I looked back I saw nothing but sands
they were gone, the desert swallowed them
they became a part of it forever"
Then dad said
"Maybe they were never there
maybe they never existed"
then he died


10.

I sit on my rooftop
my rifle ready
watching the stars
eating my MRE
smelling the warm food smells
from down below
amongst the smell of the dead
eating this shit and
waiting for my orders
when I was training, back home
they made me wait two days and
two nights on the parade ground
before they told me
what to do next

I sit and I wait
and I think
I think about what my President said to me
to us
to the world
the stuff he gave us to arm our souls
the words that will carry us through this War
and back home again
his words, I can memorised them
soul armor

he said
"Liberty and Freedom are God's gift
to every man and woman
who lives in this world"
I saw a Marine back at base
on Monday before I came here
to this rooftop in Fallujah
I saw a Marine loading his M-16 full of
armor piercing bullets and grenades
he called the bullets "Liberty"
he called the grenades "Freedom"
we distribute these gifts from God
we are holy Santas armed
to the fucking teeth

My President said
"Killers kill"
he said
"they kill because they hate freedom"
I'm a killer
I'm a good killer
but I kill to give Freedom
I think
I kill to spread Liberty
I think
"we are doing God's work"
my President said
does my President want me to kill these people?
Yes
Does God want me to kill these people?
I don't know
"We do not know God's plan"
then what am I doing here?
"but we know His ways are right and just"
if I'm doing God's work
even if we don't know His plan
then all those I kill must be part of the plan
His plan
for a Better World
so my ways are right and just
who doesn't want to live in a
betterworld?

my radio crackles
I get my new order
"Zip any haj you want,
make some chaos"
the rules of engagement say no
but the orders say yes
I look through the sights of my rifle
choose an enemy non-combatant
in the street down below
don't this fucker know about the curfew?
a smooth squeeze and
this old guy's head peels open
blood arcs in a thin shower
scarlet rain
he staggers in a circle
arms reaching for where
the rest of his head used to be
I cancel him at the knees
'Hell's Bells' echoes in from blocks away
the soundtrack of this man's death
"we're coming for you"
we're already here

11.

the orders keep coming
I keep following the orders
that's what we do
that's why they train us
the way they do
we follow the orders we're given
and that's all

the ones who come to look at what you've done
eyes like saucer, lips quivering
are easier to take out if you make a big mess
they just stand there
shocked and awed
a single shot
the crack and phfump of flesh impact
another and another
the blooms of blood in slow motion
and then the onlookers are
part of the show as well
it gets surreal
it's okay
they've all got guns
on them or at home
the more you kill
the more come out
to see who you've killed
"don't leave any wounded"
they all die,
quick and fast
the rules of engagement changed
on the wounded
months ago
or maybe years ago
that's what they told me
I do what I'm told

the screaming, raging haji fucks
still don't know where I am

12.

the hours evaporate like
the spit in my mouth
it's quiet down there now
and I'm
bored
I follow a child through my sights
just for a bit of tracking practice
I haven't had orders, heard a word
for hours
I can hear the fighting echo
through the ancient streets
and alleys
blocks away
the fighting drew away all the armed men
who were looking for me
this ancient city
older than America
that blows my mind
I wish I knew more history
I wish I knew more about these people
I came here to kill

I track the child
a little boy
blocks away, another world away
he doesn't know or care what I did here
a few hours back
the little boy runs, he laughs
with his friend
he spins then falls
is he playing a game?
but then I hear the cracking echo
of my own rifle
the little boy's friend screams
and people pour from their homes
I don't feel any different about
kids or women or old people
or some insurgent fuck with an RPG
my president told me,
I'm doing God's work
anyone who dies
was supposed to die
even this little kid
we fight them here
so we don't have to fight them
at home

there's a lot of people running around
down there
they pick up the bits of the boy
that were blown off
there's frenzy and madness
two women scream like sirens
and hit themselves
fuckohfuck
I should call this one in
a little too much chaos
in the late afternoon
there's a unit with tanks
and a sound truck
only a few blocks away
this crowd looks like they could eat them
all alive
the metal and the flesh
their rage is like human
earthquakes

I didn't mean to kill the kid
But God must have wanted him
or else he wouldn't be dead now
the men are coming back
they see me peaking down
from my rooftop
and the yelling brings more men
pouring out of the houses I thought
were mostly empty
should have been empty
cleared
men running, a swarm
they disappear below the edge of my building
I can't see them
but I can hear them
coming up the stairs

13.

the training kicks in
I'm a machine that will survive this
then the real me can take over
the controls again
I remember what I have to do
the lesson comes clear and loud
"to effect escape, give them dead,
but give them brutally wounded,
that'll keep them busy
buy some time, boy
you've got the cash"
I move across the roof
low and fast
I reach the stairs that lead down inside
they're coming up
a thick wad of angry men
one mass of flesh and hair and fury
I can feel the heat of their fury
hotter than the day
I drop two grenades down the stair well
and get the fuck out of the way
the building rocks beneath me
the stairs collapse
so much screaming
down below the street fills
with dust and crying
I dig my Uzi out of my kit
my back up, my toy
I empty the clip
into the crowd
more people fall
chaos and carnage
who ordered this disorder?

I'm sure I had another clip
more ammo, but I'm out
I've got a knife
more like a machete
my friend in the machine shop
back at base engraved
"Throat cutter" down the blade
how long have I got?
get on the radio, get the helo in

"get me out"
"we're coming in...soon"
"get me the fuck out of here!"

I call in my signal
tell them I'm under attack
confirm my location
they say, calmer than me,
"keep your head down, boy
there's a hell storm on her way"
I don't know that that means
but I understand
when I see it coming
streaking
it makes no sound
the sound hasn't caught up
yet
the missile disappears
into the building next door
it seems to swell
the blasts and shock waves
crumple the facades of other buildings
pouring fat chunks of rubble into the streets
down onto the people
running into each other
over each other
panic like a poison gas
something happens to my ears
as the blast wave smashes me
throws me back, tumbling
I don't hear the cracks
just the dull twitch of nerves
cut off from communicating with each other
in my head
something snaps
and I can hear
like I'm hearing for the first time
but everything is muffled
I can't stand up
why can't I stand up?
I drag myself to the edge of my rooftop
and look for the others
like me
on their own rooftops

through the sweet, black smoke
and the dust, concrete and blood rain
I see another American sniper
he was in my helo coming here
they dropped him two blocks away
a crowd pours onto his rooftop
from the stairs he didn't destroy
he fires but the crowd only surges faster
they swallow him up, consume him
they throw things down off his rooftop
to the people below
just shapes at first
then I can see what they are
a helmet, body armour, boots
then other pieces
pieces of him
they tore him apart

the radio, the radio
I can't reach anybody
I don't even get static
what's the fucking good of all those
fucking satellites up there
if I can't even call for rescue?
when are they coming to get me?
why am I still here?

14.

hours later, or maybe less than one
the radio, the radio
still doesn't work, like it will
never work again
like my legs, maybe
dull and limp
I push the button on my belt that tells them
something really fucked has happened to me
and they have to come and get me
out
pick me up, take me home
I push the button again

they told us
they can find us
down to two metre square proximity
I want to go home now
I need to go home now
be back in my bedroom
on the other side of the world
maybe if I play the video game again
it can be like this never happened
like a dream of a life
never lived
beyond the game
my bed, my old soft bed
my comics and my movie posters
my baseball gear
and childhood toys
I never threw away
I can see my mother standing
in the doorway of my room
looking down at my empty bed
as she wonders
what is happening to me
I know my bed has never been so warm
so comfortable
I will pull the blankets up over my head
like I did when I was a child
and when I pull the blankets down
again
this will all be over
the fading memory of a dream
that seemed more real
than real life
I will curl up in a ball in my bed
and dream of here
this place
this rooftop in Fallujah
and I will laugh and thank God
that I survived this
and then I will go downstairs
for pancakes
why doesn't the radio work?

15.

it's still night
gunfire and flames pop and crackle
the sound truck blasting AC/DC is gone
echos of screaming
desperate crying
chanting mourning
reach my ears, but the dull wall
inside my head
still blocks most of the sound
turns it down, makes it thick
I bled from my ears as I slept
and dreamed of home
dreamed I was home again
but I woke up here
it's still night
but almost dawn now
I need water
my throat is on fire
I need bullets
I need food
I need to see that helo
coming in through the dust storm
that fills the distant sky
I hold my knife, ready
I can hear them coming up
to get me
now they've cleared the bodies
and wounded from where the stairs
used to be
I can hear them coming
I can't stop them but
I can secure my zone of defence
they come onto the rooftop
my rooftop in Fallujah
there's so many of them

I can't stand
I can't crawl away
but I will fight
they crowd around me
all men, young and old
their faces sad, tired
one comes forward
the others respect him with space
he kneels down in front of me
I slash at him with the throat cutter
but he knocks my hand away
lets me keep hold of the knife
I look into the eyes
of my enemy
where's the demon?
he doesn't scare me
he doesn't look evil
or screaming with crazy rage
not like the movies they showed us
back in basic training
he's not ranting and yelling
about Israel and Allah
he's just a man
and his eyes hold terrible truth
like his heart has been broken
more times than I've lived years
I can see the history of horror
that has been his life
in his eyes
I can't speak his language
they didn't even tell me
how to say hello

In the Green Zone last month
mortars and homemade missiles
came pouring in
killing contract security guards
cooks and interpreters
every time something exploded
inside the Green Zone
I could hear the insurgents
chanting their joy
they chanted louder
when another ammo dump
went up
explosions so high they burnt through
the clouds
I remember now what the insurgents chanted
into that long night
howling like coyotes
in the Arizona scrub lands
where I went camping as a kid
when dad still took us on long drives
to see the America we never saw
on TV
I remember the words of those
who bombed us in the Green Zone
I find enough spit in my mouth to speak
the man waits for me
he quiets the crowd behind him
with a raised hand
they want to kill me
but he stops them without a word
"Aloha Ackbar" I say
He smiles, a faint grin
"Allah Ackbar?"
I nod quickly
"Allah Ackbar," he repeats and I know
he's correcting me, gently
I say it again
and the crowd whispers it
in rhythms
The man gently takes the knife
from my hand
it's like letting go of life
his men move into position
all around me
"Allah Ackbar," the man repeats
and I echo him
not scared not scared
but ready
I don't want to die
but I want it to be quick
"God is great," the man whispers
to me, with an American accent
he's one of them
but he's one of us
another one who went home to fight
for his land and his people
"Allah Ackbar, God is great"
he says, and I nod
I know
I know he is
"We both love the same God," he says
"God is great"
I know
"God loves you," the man whispers
as he slides my knife
smoothly
deeply
into my throat

16.

it's a falling dream
all the way to the ground
I tumble forever
I see the world turning
spinning
the alley and the people
the sky so blue I could swim it
then red
forgot for a moment that
my throat has been cut
my blood sprays out
as I fall
a crimson arc
it holds solid for a moment
like a red fan
then breaks into a million drops
I fall through it
my blood

I hit the ground as a child
falls down
not like a sack of wet wheat
the way adults fall
I flop and then bounce
onto my back
dull snaps and a whoosh as the last
of my air
shoots from my lungs
don't need it anymore


17.

there's a wall in my hometown
with the names of all the brave soldiers
from my forgotten farming town
all the brave soldiers
who died in one hundred years of
American wars
so far away from their farms
my name will go up there, too
now
on that old wall
my father's name is up there
the names of six of my uncles
both of my grandfathers
both of my great grandfathers
my family bred to fill the uniforms
all the brave soldiers of my family
I don't feel brave
I feel scared
I feel alone
the war stories I heard as a kid
when grand dad whispered his heroics
with a shudder
of his time in the Pacific
never had this part in them
the part with the dying
I feel like I'm ten years old
again
playing soldiers in the woods
pretending to be dead
but I won't get up and dust off my jeans
and go home now for chocolate milk
I never imagined this could be so real
I want to turn off the game and
step out of this world
back into my world
my real world
of my hometown and my mother
and my friends down the street
walk out of here
back into my world
back into my bedroom
into my bed
where dreams seem so real
until you wake up
back into my world again
back into the American I knew
before I knew so much
about the world outside

I see the sand as the darkness falls
I see their feet, their sandals, their shoes
some are taking them off
I know what happens next
I'm the statue of Saddam today
I think of how I was trained
to put my boot on their faces
in their faces
to "break them"
it was always about humiliation
strip them naked
parade them before women
their pride and dignity was a weapon
we could use against them all
interrogation through humiliation
"it'll drive them nuts"
they told me
and it did
I put my dirty boot in the faces
of the very first people I met
when I came to this land
their land
we were trained to do that
they told us to do that
the boot on the face
before we even asked
the first question

I can feel them now
the warmth of their hands on me
I can't feel any pain
as I fade
the warmth of their hands
when everything else is so cold
the warmth comforts me
grandma rubbed my elbows
and my knees
when I fell over
playing soldier
it feels like that, her hands, her warmth
all over
their hands on me
now inside me
my blood touches the sand and I feel

something of me pass into this land
this ancient land
a trace of me left behind here
now
I only wanted them to be free
like us
my blood is now a part of two lands
my home and here
Iraq
this ancient land
grains of sand
stars in the sky
how does that go?
I hope God really is great
I hope he's waiting for me
with my father and grandfather
all the soldiers of my family
waiting for me

Please be great

Please be there

END

I wrote a rough draft of this poem in late 2004, after the massive US assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. There were a number of horrific media stories detailing how some young American snipers were dropped on the roof tops of buildings in Fallujah and left there for days at a time, with radios that didn't work and no back-up, running out ammo, food, water and hope.




"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
-Famous Dead Guy

Al Gore says Global Warming caused by Earth core at 'millions of degrees', North Pole will melt in 5 years

Gore demands new tax to fund cooling of the Earth Core


Earth Core Temperature

Not only did Al Gore invent the internet, he has also redefined earth science. The puffed up phrophet of the phony climate change movement went on the Conan O’Brien Show in mid-November and told the world the temperature of the interior of the earth is “millions of degrees.” O’Brien didn’t flinch.

In fact, the Inner Mantle of the earth is 5400 ºF (3000ºC) and the Outer Mantle is 2520 ºF (1400ºC) and 5400 º F (3000ºC). The Core of the earth is between 9032 – 10832 ºF (5000-6000 ºC).

This is an estimation. Nobody knows the exact temperature of the earth’s interior. The estimate of the temperature is derived from theoretical modeling and laboratory experiments, but no scientist believes the temperature is anywhere near a million degrees.

The above video demonstrates that Al Gore is a carnival huckster for the globalist movement peddling junk science and has no idea what he is talking about.

Al Gore braves blizzard at COP15 Global Warming Con, says North Pole will melt in 5 years:



Al Gore's Climategate Christmas Music





BTW, Blood & Gore's Hopenhagen Climategate Global Tax Scam will pay Al Gore billions of dollars and genocide billions of starving sheeple. HAHAHAHAHA! (evil laff)

Commie China demands all nations agree to 1-child genocide law in Hopenhagen Treaty

Canadian newspaper demands mandatory 1-child genocide law

Organized Crime in Charge of EU Carbon Trade, Europol Says

UN landgrab annexes 90% of Earth surface for Global Taxes

EU Wants Global Transaction Tax To Fund More BanksterBailouts

Psychiatrist calls liberals 'mentally ill' with 'Psychological Causes of Political Madness'

Global Warming Xmas music