Blessings and Curses Come Unbidden
Using my lyrics and Udio.com for the music, I created this song about how both joy and sorrow seem to come unbidden, only loosely related to my actions.
Like a breeze that moves the trees, Came a joy that set me free, Not my hands that made it so, It just came, and now I know. But now sorrow rises from deep inside, A storm from which I cannot hide, Not my fault, not my call, It just came, and here I fall. Blessings rise, like the dawn, Curses fall, when night is long. Neither asked for, neither earned, In this life, I twist and turn. Maybe joy will set me free. Maybe peace will return to me. But for now there's fear and pain. I grit my teeth and cry again. Unbidden winds that sweep the sky, Through it all, I laugh, I cry. Blessings, curses, come and go, But I forge on, to what end, I do not know.
A different, more complex version (from 1:00)
Senior U.S. diplomats, journalists, academics and Secretaries of Defense say:
The U.S. provoked Russia in Ukraine
U.S. hypocrisy about the war in Ukraine is absolutely stunning, given that it invaded and bombed countries all over the world (e.g., Iraq) for flimsy reasons, often allying with Muslim extremists (e.g., Afghanistan in 80s, Serbia, Libya, and Syria). The U.S. occupies 1/3 of Syria (the parts with oil), with help from its proxy army, the Syrian Defense Forces. Russia's invasion was along its borders, in response to CIA and NATO meddling in a country with deep historical, linguistic, and cultural ties to Russia. U.S. meddling included "engineering" the 2014 coup, according to Chas. W. Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Lifetime Director of the Atlantic Council. The U.S. also armed far-right militias that were attacking Russian speakers in the east. Before the 2022 invasion, the militias increased their bombings. Crimea had voted multiple times for closer ties to Russia. The U.S. exploited divisions in Ukraine between pro-Western and pro-Russian provinces and groups to provoke the war. RAND Corporation recommended arming Ukraine as the best way to "weaken and overextend" Russia and predicted it would result in a war. The New Yorker reported that the CIA and NSA engaged in a broad "effort, around the time of the invasion, to close off many 'sources related to Russia/Ukraine matters.'"
Jack Matlock (former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR under Ronald Reagan) said in a 2024 interview: "Why don’t we understand that trying to remove Ukraine from Russian influence and put military bases there would be, in their case, absolutely unacceptable and worthy of defense?" Matlock said the U.S. backed the 2014 coup, and "Obviously, to any Russian leader, not just Vladimir Putin, that would have been an absolutely impossible, hostile act, which they had to react to. And in particular, they were not going to lose their naval base in Crimea." Finally, Matlock said the Ukrainians are "dominated in their thinking by neo-Nazis — we tend to ignore that, or when Putin points it out, we say he’s lying. He’s not lying."
Other music:
America the Battleful (Oh Beautiful for Endless Wars!)
We are Spending Two Trillion Dollars on Weapons That Must Never Be Used
We Can't Compete with China, So Let's Provoke a War
Thomas Merton's Prayer for Peace
Rock Opera about U.S. Militarism, Part One
The Unholy Land has Genocide
Requiem for Victims of U.S. Wars
Bending Over for Dearest Uncle Sam
Endless War Blues
The Endless War Blues (different version)
Windy City Protests -- from Vietnam in '68 to Gaza in '24
No More Blood For Their Endless War: an antiwar folk song made with AI
Machinery of Death (death metal song)
No More Stupid Wars!
Lesser of Two Evils Blues
The-Lesser of Two Evils Blues (longer, different version)
Eisenhower warns about the Military-Industrial Complex
Eisenhower Warns about U.S. Militarism
War is a Racket (Smedley Butler Song)
and Love Song by the U.S. Military Gospel Choir.