It Was A Famous Victory

Our bombs knocked out their lights and bridges,
Cut off all their water.
Americans should blush with shame
At Clinton’s senseless slaughter,
Persisting in this tragedy
To seek a famous victory.

With fire and bombs for eighty days,
Some thousands killed and maimed,
“Collat’ral damage” what it was,
The Pentagon proclaimed.
“Such things,” they said, “must ever be
The price of famous victory.”

Our bombers flew too high to see
Their targets on the ground.
Now Belgrade is a shocking sight;
Excuses are profound.
Civilians paid the price, you see,
For Clinton’s famous victory.

The cluster bombs killed old and young —
Reminds us of My Lai.
And Clinton gave a weak excuse,
A callous alibi:
“Sad things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.”

Bill Clinton said that we must bomb
To help the Kosovar.
Bombs didn’t help; they made things worse!
That argument’s bizarre!
Explain it to the refugee
That ’twas a famous victory.

A child can’t go to playgrounds now
Or parks to have good times,
Because they’ll lose a leg or arm
From unexploded mines.
Their safety we can’t guarantee,
Despite our famous victory.

It surely was the strangest war
In all of hist’ry’s annals.
Was it to hide the Chinese spies,
Or cover other scandals?
Perhaps for NATO’s self-esteem?
Or Europe’s follies to redeem?

How much will “winning” cost us now?
That is the acid question!
Our global cops must stay for years
To give them all protection.
We now must fight the K L A
Who seek the “peace” plan to betray.

War stirred up Russia with its nukes,
And Russian troops returned.
And now we’ll have a “Marshall Plan”
To rebuild what got burned.
We’ll spend our surplus on this fight!
Alas, no exit is in sight.

But all the press did praise the Prez
Who this sad war did win.
But no good came of it at all,
To everyone’s chagrin.
We bet that hist’ry will agree
That ’twas a Pyrrhic victory.

The Battle of Blenheim Revisited;
with apologies to Robert Southey (1774-1843).