Duct Tape and Plastic Sheeting

Here is a poem I wrote on the eve of our invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, expressing my dismay at the irony of our accusation that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, when in fact we were about to unleash them on the Iraqi people.

I wrote the first stanza of the poem “Duct Tape and Plastic Sheeting” in response to the 2003 "duct tape alert" by the George W Bush administration. On February 10, 2003, then-U.S. FEMA Director David Paulison went on television and told Americans to prepare for terrorist attacks by stocking up on, among other things, duct tape and plastic sheeting to cover up their windows and doors in an attempt to seal one's home against nuclear, chemical, or biological contaminants. It was in fact the Iraqis who came under attack, not the US.. In the poem I tried to convey the absurdity of this precaution when we, in fact, were about to unleash a devastating terrorist attack on the Iraqi nation that would eventually lead to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties.


The second stanza, “Green Parrots,” was written in response to Gino Strada’s book of the same name which describes the horrendous injuries inflicted on children in war zones by cluster bombs. Designed to look like toys, green parrots are small, winged cylinders roughly four inches long that flutter over lands ravaged by war, but are, in fact, antipersonnel mines that litter the landscape. They are used indiscriminately by the US and its allies in Iraq and elsewhere to devastating effect.

Duct Tape and Plastic Sheeting -- By Dennis A. Etler

Does duct tape and plastic sheeting protect against bombs?
Oh, you Iraqi women and children, please protect yourselves
From weapons of mass destruction.
Oh, you long suffering masses of the Islamic horde,
Please go to the local bazaar and buy your duct tape and plastic sheeting.
Cover your doors and windows to ward off the reign of terror
Descending upon you from the skies.
One bomb for every thousand of you.
One pound of devastation for each and every one of you.
Stand proud in shock and awe.
We can sympathize with you as we cower in Kennebunkport
Behind duct tape and plastic sheeting.
Waiting in vain for weapons of mass destruction.
We will make your wait much shorter than ours.
You will satisfy our hunger for mass destruction.
Please buy your duct tape and plastic sheeting
As we begin to destroy your country in order to save it,
For democracy.

Green Parrots

Do cluster bombs make good Christmas ornaments?
Oh, you young Iraqi boys and girls, be careful as you walk across brown fields
To schools leveled by American bombs
Brown fields littered with green parrots meant to tear you limb from limb
Oh, you loving Iraqi mothers and fathers
Look away as your children’s hands are blown apart
Go to your mosques to mourn your dead and reap their bodies.
A country destroyed, a village destroyed, a family destroyed
We can sympathize as we go shopping for Christmas decorations
To place upon the tree, as we sing songs of heavenly peace
And brotherhood amongst all men
As we send drones to kill your brides and grooms.
Oh, you poor Iraqi people who once lived side by side
Sunni and Shia, married together, working together, living together.
Christian and Muslim, worshiping in centuries old churches and mosques.
Your shredded bodies now drape the landscape
A persistent memory of what war has wrought.