Masters of (fictional) War

This song is written by Richard B., with apologies and thanks to Bob Dylan.

MASTERS OF (FICTIONAL) WAR

Come you Masters of War
You give enemies a name
Call them radical and extreme
That’s part of the game
You can say they’re Islamists
A small minority
But you can’t say it’s Islam
That wants to kill me.

You that never done nothin’
But tell us the way
The “religion of peace”
Was hijacked one day
Now were fightin’ “over there”
So we don’t have to fight “here”
They hate what we are
But there’s nothing to fear.

Let me ask you one question
Do they want to be free?
Are they asking for liberty?
And democracy?
Can we win hearts and minds
At the point of a gun?
Better hand out more money
‘Cause they’re startin’ to run.

Now you’re holding a wolf
By his ears and his tail
Let go and he’ll bite you
He’s getting mad as hell
But you can’t hold him forever
To keep him at bay
Unless you squeeze him so tight
That he’ll drop dead one day.

- end of initial entry -

LA to Richard B.:

I’ve posted your terrific Dylan take-off. You really capture some VFR themes here. Thanks for this.

I keep asking myself what that mysterious last line means.

.

Richard B. replies:

Thanks for the compliments. Your line about this being “the first war in history where the more ferociously you denounce your enemy, the more he disappears from sight,” made me laugh out loud! That inspired the first verse, and the rest followed.

And yes, we could easily love Iraq to death. But that other great line from the sixties says it all. “There’s somethin’ happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 29, 2007 01:48 AM | Send