Great News for Country Joe McDonald: Anti-War Song Could Be Back In Play
If you’ve ever watched the movie Woodstock, you’ve seen the devastating anti-war song from my “brother by another mother”, Country Joe McDonald. I don’t know about his mother, but mine always stressed that we should focus on the positive, and guess what? One good thing for him is that his song could be coming around again. The rhyme scheme works once more. All you have to do is add a drumbeat for the extra syllable and it goes a little something like this: “Well, it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Good golly, I don’t give a damn, next stop is (boom) Iran.”
His song, mysteriously entitled “Feeling Like I’m Fixin' to Die Rag”, was actually one of the more powerful anti-war anthems because it used a light-hearted approach to focus on the horrible situation: “Be the first one on your block, to have your boy come home in a box.”
Well, over 3,000 American soldiers have returned from Iraq in coffins, but the anti-war movement that helped end Vietnam is not getting the job done here. Neither is the Democratic Congress. Okay, at the relative times, we are ahead. The American People have seen through Iraq faster, and it is now much more unpopular, quicker than Vietnam.
The problem is these current leaders are not done. Iran is in the crosshairs, and the drums of war are beating even louder than a few weeks ago. Aircraft carrier groups are in or heading to the Persian Gulf and it looks like the chicken hawks in the Bush administration have one final fiasco left in them. This time around the fake intelligence may be upgraded to fake evidence – there are already reports that the “Iranian” IEDs were actually manufactured in Great Britain. Who knows? They wouldn’t lie to us, would they?
Country Joe does have one other advantage with the Iran situation. With Russia grumbling, and the rest of the world feeling forced to do something about the mad, warlord policy of the Bush administration, other lines in Joe's tune could have increased impact. If this does lead to a nuclear conflagration, the line, “Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee, we’re all going to die”, could have much more meaning this time around.
posted by Bill McDonald @ 8:17 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Hey Bill,
No the Democrats have not rescued us from Iraq. Did you really expect that to happen? Truth is we are never going to pull out of Iraq. To much oil under that piece of land. The Neocons will not allow anyone else to lay claim to it no matter how many American kids have to die. As one of the Nazi stated, "this war will not end in our life time."
Damn Bill....you are just totally awesome!!!! Not only have you lived and interesting life, now we find out you have interesting relatives too.....
One of these days I would love to hear about your familes time in the Middle East...but....NOT before you finish up on that hitchhicking trip!!!!
Of course, that "brother from another mother" prhase is like a kindred spirit - not an actual family relationship, but I think you're on to that.
OOPS...nope...thick headed me took it at face value....did notice that you two did not favor any..but then,sometimes sibings don't..even half siblings...Sorry.
I think it's a Generation X phrase. I'd let it go put when your describing events like these you've got to keep it as real as possible. Besides my brother Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers gets mad .....KIDDING!
One thing people often forget is that the anti-war movement in the Vietnam didn't start until up to four years after the conflict had started.
In the case of the Iraq war there was massive protest before the war had started. That hadn't happened before, but the Administration was simply dismissive of it as a minority sentiment. What could get the job done when you have the neo-cons with such power? With the media acting as the administration's speaking box? The power of the people didn't hold up to the power of information.
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