WEASEL WORDS?

Apologists for war claim it simply reflects our ‘Killler

Ape’ characteristics but when a British soldier kills

a live prisoner that’s described as,“combat stress”.

The British soldier is a gent,

Each one a decent chap;

Who’s innocent of what he meant,

(The usual kind of crap!)

It’s all those ‘British Values’ we,

Instil at Public School;

Obey your betters faithfully,

That’s Britain’s Golden Rule.

But we’re not like those foreign men,

(Especially the Hun)

Who blindly follow orders when,

They’ve got a Tommy-Gun.

The subtle difference is taboo,

It’s called ‘Hypocrisy’;

An all-embracing rule for you,

A different one for me.

We never kill civilians,

The ‘Damage’ is instead;

“Collateral” – the millions,

Who die alone in bed. (1)

Orwell was right when he claimed that,

The use of ‘Doublespeak’;  

Enables every bureaucrat,

To use the lie technique.

‘Enhanced interrogation’s is,

The method we employ;

As ‘torture’s’ simply not the biz,

It doesn’t sound so coy!  

Yes ‘British Values’ has a lilt,

That kids us we’re the best;

That way we can assuage our guilt,

And get it off our chest!

(1) In 2015, the Washington Post estimated that

88,000 US soldiers were killed in Middle East wars.

Up to  4 million civilians have died in the same.

© Richard Layton