The Numbers Game

Transparency -- the name of the game.
Promised; therefore, it must be so.
it must be so.
"Trust me, I taught Constitutional law," he says
as drones fly, lawlessly.
Sovereignty doesn't exist,
unless you're the US.
Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia,
places you don't even know of.
Obama says, "Trust me, we target bad guys,"
no troops in harm's way,
collateral damage -- minimized.
Only 116 civilians killed;
a nice, low number.
Numbers, so easy to play with,
have to ask -- who does the counting?
Do wedding guests count --
13 dead in Yemen,
a funeral parade on the way.
Over 2000 dead in Pakistan,
paramedics, neighbors, taxi drivers;
do they not count as well?
What about American hostages,
held captive in caves.
People like Warren Weinstein,
innocent, blameless,
did he count?
Never is there an apology,
a few words for the "accidents."
Always, always, justified,
beyond oversight, law, decency.
Minimize, only minimize,
Civilian slaughter,
make it small, infinitesimal.
Pretend it never happened,
Americans forget so quickly.
116; a nice, small number.
Let us make believe it's true.
Because memory here,
a fleeting thing in the wind.
Numbers, deaths, conscience,
blown away like grains of sand,
forget, forget, and forget some more.
After all, who cares anyway?