Get use to it, I'm going to spend the rest of the war assisting young Iraq and Afghanistan Vets express THEIR insightful feelings if I agree with them or not. I'm talking about those whom the mainstream media, and Congress refuses to give a voice to. The Mustang Major.

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  B R O K E N 

BROKEN TOY SOLDIERS

By Mark Wilkerson, IVAW

We buy broken hearts, and boil them in white pots

We mix'em up, cook 'em up, and feed them to our dogs

And when the dogs have had their fill, and say they've had enough

We wait until they s--t'em up, and gather up the stuff

We put the hearts in buckets, and give 'en to the chefs

Who roll them out on baking sheets, and stick on top the chips

Then they throw them in the oven, and cook them till they're well

Then we feed them to the kiddies, who say, "Gee sir, they're really swell!"

Then we hand the kids a little flag, which they begin to wave

Stick 'em in the audience of a Veteran's Day Parade

As the troops go marching by, with flashbacks in their eyes

They see the bright-eyed angels, and they begin to sigh

For once a long, long time ago, they stood on the side

Till a recruiter came to them and told them all his lies

Then they're standing in an office, standing proud and tall

They look all around 'em, see a hundred others in the hall

They hold up their right hands, they say they'll do it all

Then we send them off to war, they see all around them fall

Kids, soldiers, dreams, hopes

Till all that stands are broken toy soldiers

Yes we buy broken hearts of now childless moms

And sell them in ribbons in booths at strip malls

We buy broken hearts of now-widowed wives

Who work hard everyday to keep her kids alive

We buy broken hearts of now broken men

Then make them re-enlist, for heartless men will do it again

We buy broken hearts of now-fatherless sons

Wait till they grow up, and sell them all our guns

Send 'them' off to fight in a different-but-same war

Tell them "Hadji killed your dad," so they'll kill more and more

Yes, we buy broken hearts and stick 'em in our speeches

We buy broken hearts and stick 'em on the back of our pickup trucks

We buy broken hearts to help our war machine go round

And soon one day we'll buy yours, and throw you in the ground.

--Mark Wilkerson, IVAW

Posted by: Bobby Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, VVAW