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I hope this poem is now complete. I started it in the seventies. I’ve had to add verses over the years, I published it in my book, Poems for Husbands and other Underdogs a few years ago. But, I had to add another verse since then.

Good News

          by Michael Irving Phillips

 We’ve come to liberate you Vietnamese

To lift you up from off your knees

To give you our justice, to right your wrong

Let’s eliminate the Viet Cong!

Let’s eliminate the Viet Cong!

Let’s go! Can’t you hear what we said?

But no one moved

They all were dead

 Years later

More Good News

We’ve come to liberate you Vietnamese Iraqis

To lift you up from off your knees

To give you our justice, to right your wrong

Now just where are those WMD’s?

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Aw… does not matter a hill of beans

Though now your country lay in ruins

Don’t be angry.

Don’t get hot

In years to come you will thank me

For bringing you democracy

Whether you requested it, or not.

Let’s go!

Can’t you hear what we said?

But no one moved

They all were dead

We’ve come to liberate you Afghanistanese

To lift you up from off your knees

To give you our justice, to right your wrong

Let’s eliminate the Taliban!

Let’s eliminate the Taliban!

Oft we kill both friend and foe

But it’s not really carnage,

Chalk it up instead

To mere collateral damage.

Let’s go!

Can’t you hear what we said?

But no one moved

They all were dead

We’ve come to free you Iranese
With the help of the Israelis
From Islamic tyranny
By bombing schools, hospitals and homes
And especially oil refineries
But, don’t be angry
We aim to please
To lift you up from off your knees
Let’s go!
Can’t you hear what we said?
But no one moved
They all were dead

Onward our Christian soldiers

Now into Muslim lands they go

Dealing death and destruction

For dragon teeth to sow

Enough! Enough!

This I beg you please

Break the cycle

Cease this brutal repetition

Let the countries choose

Their own destinies

So at last there’ll be

Finally

No more good news