AL-QUAEDA: THE NEW BOGEYMAN



There’s a new bogeyman who moved into town
We’re told he’s named al-Quaeda,
He sets out to bring down democracy
By training terrorist fighters.

But we never seem to see al-Quaeda
The Yanks tell us what he has done,
We wonder if that means we’re winning
And al-Quaeda is on the run?

Or is there some other reason
That we never get to see this fiend?
Could it be the Yanks are telling tales?
And al-Quaeda is just pretend?

But we’re told the Yankees are our friend
The fuehrer tells us so,
So surely al-Quaeda must be real?
Still ... how are we to know?

He never seems to show himself
We’ve seen no hide or hair,
So those who think for themselves
Wonder if al-Quaeda is really there?

The bogeyman has changed his name
Many times down the long years,
So how do we know al-Quaeda is real?
The Yanks aren’t just playing on our fears?

With the propaganda war running strong
What are we all to believe?
Is al-Quaeda truly out there?
Or are the Yanks trying to deceive?

We’d like to believe the Americans
But they have lied to us before,
So when it comes to al-Quaeda now
How can anyone really be sure?

They lied about Vietnam
Saying the Russians were fighting too,
But now we know that the U.S.S.R
Was never in that show.

They lied to the nuclear physicists
Working on the Manhattan project,
They said they’d atomise Mount Fujiyama
And kill very few Japanese subjects.

So how do we know about the bogeyman?
Is al-Quaeda even there at all?
We know we can’t trust the bloody Yanks
When they want our troops to keep taking the fall.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

Terrorism is a terrible thing. But sometimes we have to ask who is terrorising whom. In countries like the U.S.A. & U.K. there is a tradition of making up bogey words and phrases like "commie", "red", "leftie" to put down great social reformers like Jessie Jackson and to stop important social reform from ever happening. Al-Quaeda is the latest boogy word, and I am not convinved it even exists! I believe al-Quaeda is a new bogey word made up to stir up the public to jingoist madness to allow governments to get away with the gross human rights violations, which America, England, Australia and other so-called democratic countries have been guilty of since September 2001.  

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Written on January 16, 2009

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on July 19, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:28 min read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXX ABXB BAXA ACDC XEXE XFDF XGEG XXXX XAEC XAHX XIXI AXH
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,568
Words 296
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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