http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNc0CM5HJFUTHE TORTURE TOUR
by Rick Burnley
This administration serves a crime du jour,
And a heinous one is the torture tour.
Diego Garcia and Abu Ghareb
Where many prisoners get a premature grave.
Hundreds and hundreds get to rot away,
Baking like lizards at Guantanamo Bay.
And most of these people aren’t charged with a crime
They just get the chance to serve infinite time.
We claim that this is a nation of laws
Supposedly, that’s our custom
But a suspicion of guilt is all we need
And we can’t wait for the chance to bust ‘em.
And after all the misdeeds that are done in our name,
Our leaders say we should trust ‘em.
Sleep deprivation and isolation,
Often we’ve defiled the Koran.
These criminal acts are a stain on our nation,
And the fires of hatred are fanned.
We terrify prisoners with vicious dogs
Which are sometimes ordered to bite
And their naked victims lie in pools of blood
But out leaders say it’s all right to do what we want
The laws of man don’t apply,
We can keep them locked up forever
Without charges, ‘til they die.
There are laws that are supposed to protect us
It appears that many are a sham.
And it’s painful to see our nation misled
By the sheriff of Nottingham.
You’re supposed to be innocent ‘till proven guilty,
But now it’s just the reverse
And many prisoners come in healthy,
And roll out in a government hearse.
We have no proof against many
They’re tortured to see what they know
Evil methods are used, and our captives abused
We haven’t learned that you reap what you sow.
They’re hung upside down on waterboards,
And told that they’re going to die
They can’t breathe, and they think that they’re drowning
But our laws against torture don’t apply
They’re forced into painful positions
And left their for hours or days
Psychological torture and humiliation,
These are the noble ways that we employ
When we try to extract a confession of guilt
Because we lack the facts
In the eyes of the world, these are criminal acts,
And karma will have it’s say
Many of our captives are beaten,
And some quite severely it seems.
But the American people are kept in the dark
And they never hear the screams
The victims of these criminal acts
Will forever have bad dreams.
Now there’s a brand new attraction,
It’s called extraordinary rendition,
Where citizens are snatched anywhere in the world
And subjected to tortuous conditions.
Our government kidnaps these people
And takes them to a foreign jail
Where there are no laws to protect the prisoners
No charges, no chance for bail.
These crimes that are done by our leaders
And are done in America’s name
They’re turning the world against us
And the apathetic share the blame
You have to speak out, ‘cause it’s flat out wrong
If you don’t try to stop it, then you’re going along
Torture was used in the dark ages
We’re supposedly heading toward the light
And these abominable criminal acts
Are something we all should fight
This administration serves a crime du jour
And among the worst, is the torture tour
We should send these rascals to a speedy trial
Because the honor of our country has been defiled.
© Rick Burnley November, 2005
http://rickburnley.com/pages/poems/poems.html