Political Verse

Suppose
A retrospective of the last decade
By Dee Newman

Suppose the chad-hanging electoral
Debacle at the outset of this past decade
Had not occurred; that David Boies’ oral
Arguments had not been just a charade;

That a majority on the Supreme
Court had let the Florida votes be
Counted; that Al Gore was deemed
The winner and allowed to assume the

Office he most assuredly won,
Becoming a White House resident,
Rather than George H.W. Bush’s son,
Who became our nation’s worst president,

9/11 may not have occurred that morning, 
Bush and Company would not have been there
To disregard warning after warning
About impending attacks from the air;

Rice wouldn’t’ve been head of the NSA,
And those huge files on al-Qaeda’s plots,
(Long before the attacks were underway)
Would have been read in time to connect the dots,

Instead of months later; the assiduous
Presidential Briefing, with the title,
“Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US”
Would have certainly been seen as vital

Intelligence, warning of the hijacking
Of airlines and other suspicious actions,
Plans, and preparations for attacking
Certain New York buildings and attractions;

Hundreds of billions of dollars that now line
The pockets of a few at our expense
Would not have been misspent on that asinine
War in Iraq, but on our own defense;

The disgraceful and deadly chain of events
Would never have had to be suffered;
The economic despair that torments
This nation would never have occurred;

5,000 US troops would still be alive
And well and emotionally stable;
And 50,000 more would not be deprived
Of a limb and permanently disabled;

There would have never been an Abu Ghraib,
Guantánamo, or the rank idiocy
To be lured into bin Laden’s web
And "bled to the brink of bankruptcy"

As he said he would do. Perhaps, bin Laden
Would’ve been caught, “dead or alive,” long ago
As Bush boasted he would do – with "God on
Our side." Oh, what an inflated ego!

So now, as we suffer the rescissions
Of our Rights due to the Patriot Act
And all the other imprudent decisions
Of Bush and Company, in spite of the fact,

We voted for and elected Al Gore,
We’re still left, once again, with the aggravation
Of mopping up the mess of yet one more
Failed Republican administration.

Look, the war on terror was clearly botched.
The facts are certain; they’re not obscure.
9/11 happened on Bush’s watch.
It was his administration’s failure.

The headline of the editorial
Should read, If not for their Egomania,
Perhaps, there would be no memorial
In New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania.