Beyond the Limit

A car’s backfire gives me pause

While trying hard to catch my breath,
Though in a trice I know the cause
Should not instill a fear of death.
Not so for those in combat posts
Who’ve heard the sound turn friends to ghosts.

Too many of our guys have served
Too many tours to keep their wits,
Like Sergeant Robert Bales, unnerved
By gruesomeness that gives them fits.
Traumatic stress prompts suicide;
In his case, slaughter village-wide.

In Vietnam, GI draftees,
Who totaled millions, served one tour.
Today’s much smaller force decrees
Our troops, all volunteers, endure
Like Bales, three years, beginning four,
With inner demons waging war.

I hope he’s found to be insane,
It’s only fitting that he should.
Our decade-old Afghan campaign
Has outrun what was understood

To be its goals: Bin Laden dead,

Al Qaeda not so much to dread.