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I try hard to be proud of my service
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but all I could feel is shame
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the racism can no longer mask
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the reality of this occupation.
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These were people, these were human beings
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I since been hit by guilt anytime I see an elderly man
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like the one who couldn't walk
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and we rolled onto a stretcher
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and called the Iraqui police to take him away
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I feel guilt anytime I see a mother with her children
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like the one who cried hysterically
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screaming that we are worse than Saddam
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as we forced them from their home
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I feel guilt anytime I see a young girl
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like the one I grabbed by the arm
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and dragged to the street
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We were told we were fighting terrorists
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the real terrorist was me
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and the real terrorism is this occupation
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Racism within the military has bee a long
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and important tool to justify
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the destruction and occupation of another country
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Is long been used to justify the killings
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subjugation and torture of another people
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Racism is the vital weapon employed by this government
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It's more important weapon then a rifle
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a tank, a bomber or a battleship
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It's more destructive than artillery shells
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or a bunker buster
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or a Tomahawk missile
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While those weapons are created
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and owned by this government
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they are harmless
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without people willing to use them
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Those who send us to war
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do not pull a trigger
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or lob a mortar round
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They do not have to fight the war
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they merely need to sell the war
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they need a public who is willing
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to send their soldiers in the harm's way
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they need soldiers willing to kill or be killed
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without questions
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they can spend billions on a single bomb
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but that bomb only becomes a weapon
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when the the ranks in the military are willing
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to follow orders to use it
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They can send every last soldier anywhere on Earth
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but there will only be a war when soldiers are willing to fight
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And the ruling class, the billionaires
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who profit from human suffering
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who care only about expanding their wealth
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and controlling the world economy,
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understand that their power lies
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only in their ability to convince us that war,
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oppression, and exploitation are in our interest.
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They understand that their wealth is dependent
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on their ability to convince the working class to die
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to control the market of another country.
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And convincing us to kill and die
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is based on their ability to make us think
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that we are somehow superior.
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Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen
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have nothing to gain from this occupation
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the vast majority people living in the US
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have nothing to gain from this occupation
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In fact not only do we have nothing to gain
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but we suffer more because of it
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We lose limbs, endure trauma,
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and give our lives.
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Our families have to watch flag-draped coffins
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lowered into the earth.
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Millions in this country without health care,
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jobs, or access to education,
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have watched this government squander of a
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450 million dollars a day on this occupation
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Poor and working people in this country
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are send to kill poor and working people in another country,
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to make the rich richer
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and without racism, soldiers would realize
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that they have more in common with the Iraqi people
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than they do with the billionaires who send us to war
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I threw families onto the street in Iraq
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only to come home and find families thrown onto the street
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in this country, and it's a tragic
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and unnecessary foreclosure crisis
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We need to wake up and realize that our real enemies
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are not in some distant land
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they're not people whose names we don't know
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and cultures we don't understand
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The enemy is people we know very well
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and people we can identify
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The enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable
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The enemy is the CEO's who lay us off from our jobs
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when it's profitable
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it's the insurance companies who deny us health care when it's profitable
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it's the banks who take away our homes when it's profitable
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Our enemy is not five thousand miles away
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they are right here at home
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When we organize, and fight with our sisters and brothers
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we can stop this war, we can stop this government
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and we can create a better world
