America lost the Vietnam War
Yet, wasn't truly a military defeat
We lost by throwing lives away
Of our youth, of the Vietnamese
50 years later we bear the scars
But we measured victory
By counting bodies
There is no honor this murder
No grace in slaughter
We treated our warriors like meat
Offered up to slaughter and hate
Followed up with shameful retreat
Few realized what was happening
Few then understood the chances bleak
With leaders unaware of consequences
Of wasting the finest vintage of youth
Politicians worry about the balancing
Of looking powerful but being weak
No one foresaw the loss of innocence
All politics died in the light of truth
How can democracy survive
In the crucible of hubris and fire
We fought for ideals not shared
By the Vietnamese North or South
By our hand we gave power to tyrants
And then empowered the political liars
Though we acted as though we cared
All we ever did was create doubt
“Anyone who does not acknowledge the darkness in his nature will succumb to it...the lamp of conviction needs to be shaded by doubt, or it burns with a blinding light.”
