[Verse] LBJ supported the Vietnam War, so we got Nixon. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. The Dems wouldn't let Bernie win (twice), so we got Trump. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. America supported mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s, so we got Al Qaeda. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. America wrecked the Middle East, so we got 9/11, and the resulting migration wrecked EU politics. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. American coups, sanctions and economic exploitation wrecked Latin America, so immigration helped elect Republicans. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. Dems allowed Republicans to steal the elections in 2000 and 2004, so we got the war in Iraq, a right wing Supreme Court, and continued voter suppression. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. Pelosi opposed impeaching Bush and kneecapped* the impeachments of Trump (to protect swing-state Dems), so Republicans got stronger. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. The CIA engineered** the war in Ukraine, so Ukraine got wrecked, inflation soared, EU economies tanked, military spending rose, and right wing governments won. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. U.S. economic sanctions caused inflation, which helped elect Trump and far-right governments overseas. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. Biden's foreign policy distracted him from domestic policies and misspent hundreds of billions of dollars that could have helped Dems win the 2024 election. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. Nader supporters disliked environmentalist Al Gore, so we got Bush.*** Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price. Stein supporters wouldn't vote for lesser-of-two-evils Hillary (the lying neo-liberal warmonger) in 2016, so we got Trump. Blowback, blowback, you do something stupid and you pay the price.
*See Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress's Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump
**By "engineering" the 2014 coup, arming far-right militias, withdrawing from multiple nuclear agreements, and (contrary to verbal promises made by multiple western leaders) expanding NATO right up to Russia's borders (the Cuban Missile Criss in reverse). See The Ukraine Papers.
***I reject the argument "You can't blame Nader, because his supporters never would have voted for Gore anyway." It's true that you can't blame Nader alone; you have to blame his supporters as well! It was Nader's supporters, not just Nader, who helped swing the election. The election was close enough that if Nader supporters had voted for Gore, Gore would have won. That being said, there were other factors too that made a difference.
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."
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.