THE IRAQ WAR FOLLY

“Knowing what we know now, did President George W. Bush make 
a huge mistake in invading Iraq?”  (The Week, May 29, 2015)

               Informed historians say a war we fought
               Is now adjudged to have been waged for naught
               Since all that death, destruction, misery
               Derived from an aberrant fantasy,

               And I allowed myself to go along
               With what I might have figured out was wrong
               If only I’d been conscious and attentive
               And urged a policy that was preventive.

               I wonder if there’ll ever come a time
               When anything like war will be a crime,
               A childish motivation then outgrown,
               The seeds of which no longer will be sown.

                    The greatest leap humanity may take
                    Will be toward wisdom—humane and awake.

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