Devils in Disguise (a song about the Blue Angels)
By Don A. Smith. Created with help from AI. Click on image below to watch video.
The Blue Angels are devils in dreadful disguise, They rip through the calm of our peaceful skies. Taxpayer millions burn with every flight, For deafening shows glorifying military might. They leave a thick trail of poison in air, While children cough and no one seems to care. People cheer as they roll and roar up above, But death machines don't symbolize love. They say it's for freedom, they call it "defense," But every war’s born of lies and cruel pretense. It's all about profits -- immense and profane: A vicious machine that causes much pain. Noise shakes the windows, it rattles the trees, While veterans sleep alone on cold city streets. Hospitals crumble, wages stay low, But the jets must fly for this big-budget show. This isn’t uplifting — it’s a pageant of war, A circus of killing we choose to ignore. Steel birds that howl like devils above, Leaving behind a world bereft of love. They say it's for freedom, they call it "defense," But every war’s born of lies and cruel pretense. It's all about profits -- immense and profane: A vicious machine that causes much pain. The Blue Angels are devils in dreadful disguise, Painting their death trails across our skies. Let’s trade their roar for a world that’s wise— And raise up our voices, not warplanes, high.
The Blue Angels perform every year at Seattle's Seafair celebration. There are groups trying to halt their participation.
Real Change: What is to be done about the Blue Angels?
The Urbanist: Op-Ed: It’s Time for Seattle to Cancel the Blue Angels
Extinction Rebellion: End Blue Angels
Senior U.S. diplomats, journalists, academics and Secretaries of Defense say:
The U.S. provoked Russia in Ukraine
For example, 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."
U.S. hypocrisy is absolutely stunning, since 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. 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. Anti-Russian, far-right militias armed by the U.S. were attacking Russian speakers in the east. Before the 2022 invasion, the militias increased their bombings.
Other music:
We Can't Compete with China, So Let's Provoke a War
Victoria (Nuland)'s Secret"
Game On -- sung by Senator Lindsey Graham
America the Battleful (Oh Beautiful for Endless Wars!)
We are Spending Two Trillion Dollars on Weapons That Must Never Be Used
Thomas Merton's Prayer for Peace
Trump-Netanyahu Love Song
Netanyahu War Criminal
Invasion of the MAGA Mind Snatchers
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
The Endless War Blues
Endless War Blues (older 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
Eisenhower warns about the Military-Industrial Complex
Eisenhower Warns about U.S. Militarism
and Love Song by the U.S. Military Gospel Choir.