The Bushiad
Chapter 7: The Gods of War

The Idyossey
Chapter 1- Ichor of the Gods
Chapter 2- The Price of Peace
Chapter 3- Empyre
Chapter 4- Woeful Warrior
Chapter 5- Mitzvah
Chapter 6- News Analysis
Chapter 7- Strategic Planner
Chapter 8- Aristea
Chapter 9- Last Supper
Chapter 10- Skullduggery
Chapter 11: Family Reunion
Chapter 12- Black Goddess
Chapter 13- Saboteur
Chapter 14- Glossolalia
Chapter 15- Visitation
Chapter 16- Dead or Alive
Chapter 17- Across the Border
Chapter 18- The Unraveling
Chapter 19- Summer in the City
Chapter 20- Wolf and Jackal
Chapter 21- George Gloats
Chapter 22- Surreality
Chapter 23- Kidnapped
Chapter 24- Denouement

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Ares’ heirs sit fat and happy in the desert.
Budgets bloated, armor shining, the gods of war
Choose sides and divvy up the world. They name
The conflict "Shock and Awe," these deities of destruction,
With the US deadline come and gone, Sly Saddam in hiding,
Wall Street rises with the expectation of clashing armies.

“We will equip the US side with fearsome weapons,
Destructive power such as the world has never seen,
Accuracy so fine even great archer Odysseus,
Unmatched in all of Ithaca in his prowess with the bow,
Himself invested by his gods with eagle’s eyesight
Could not equal!” says Lockheed Martin.

“The blast effects? Awesome! Considering
The low cost of the explosive we use, incidentally,
Bought from brother Dow the master chemist.
We’re the masters of compressive physics, and
Compared its effects on tissue and soft organs
To searing heat, which also kills - but much more slowly.”

“When selling in the weapons market, competing
For an edge, the efficiencies are more refined
Than ever since brother Hughes installed
The GPS, its noose tight around the globe, making
Delivery nearly as reliable as FedEx, and
Explosive calibration the center of cost benefit.”

The Iraqi trade show has begun. All weapons in the field
The newest generations of technology, (as if
Forged by great Haephestus, blacksmith for Achilles),
Pointed bunker busters of a thousand pounds are
At the call of corporate gods and men they choose
As salesmen for this decade’s best in weapons.

“You mention brother Hughes.” says Boeing, “I will concede
that GPS has changed the game. Alone among us
I give armies wings, carry them into the heavens
Where they look down upon the battle lines with
Near omniscience in their gaze from space, selecting prey
Like a falcon seizes upon a distant mouse for dinner.”

“We can shoot a missile right up Saddam’s ass,
Or between his eyes if we prefer, or slightly to the left
Take out his right eye milliseconds before his head explodes
In a ball of brains and blood and bone,” intones Raytheon,
Chiming in to make sure his powers are not forgotten by the others
Who think of their own bottom line and shareholder dividend.

“Look,” says Hughes “we’re all in this together. The
After-conflict market should be very, very hot. Remember
Most of these weapon systems have not been seen before
And with the credit promised and the loans to be extended
Close to 50 countries will be anxious for new toys,
While their neighbors vainly wish they’d joined our side.”

All heads nod round the table in anticipation
Of high profits and impressive quarterly results.
The best is yet to come, some think proudly,
With the introduction of the platforms placed in space;
Heaven's wrath in orbit 200 miles from earth,
Wielding a High Energy Laser Emitting Nuke: HELEN.

HELEN, elegant, sublime and powerful,
Holding men in sway and seducing gods of war
With the promise of her death ray, a golden beam of light
Directed from the skies, vaporizing bodies with its touch.
More powerful than Medusa who merely turned men into stone
HELEN is the ultimate prize, consort of the gods of war alone.

Hunkered down behind his desk sits Simple George.
He also thinks of HELEN and her power, longing
For the day when perched in space aloft awaiting,
The right time comes to unleash her fearsome steady stare,
Pure energy of the power of the atom, focused oh so tightly
On the enemies of peace.

Unknown to Simple George, though, is a secret.
That HELEN is a fickle lover prone to dalliance,
And at that very moment as he daydreams
Paris holds HELEN in a strong embrace.
A cushioned berth atop France’s Arienne Rocket
Will soften her ascent from the grasping tug of earth.

Meanwhile in the fields of war, the product demos quicken,
Broadcast to the eager public by the ever present media
In bed with army squadrons, aboard the long gray ships.
They act as go-between, mediating images of war
Sometimes false, sometimes true as fits the mood,
High ratings reflect success with reality TV.

In Baghdad the morning meal is interrupted,
Huge munitions from the gods of war aloft.
Guided by stealth and GPS the missiles do their work,
3,000 pounds of high explosive, 600,000 bucks apiece.
500 fall in just one day, like finale on July the 4th,
Except it’s March 15th.

“It is not a beautiful day in the neighborhood,”
Cracks General Franks about the morning’s shock
And awe, defiling Saint Fred Rogers, from
The land of make believe, who taught the values
Once bestowed by parents and grandparents, back
When families still shared stories and warm meals.

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