Cowards and the Brave

Michael Hall

It takes a lot of guts and sheer bravery

To arrest and haul off children from their parents for tossing rocks

While you hold M-16's and Uzis
They just have tears and pleas and you love every minute of it



What type of gallantry does it take to bomb schools and hospitals

To use state of the art military killing machines on civilians and on their homes

Armored hummers and wearing flak jackets for protection against nonviolent protesters

As you fire tear gas canisters at their faces, what courage is that



As you nightly raid backed up by soldiers armed to the teeth

You take a kid as hostage and force him out in front

As you break and enter a home you have him go through the cupboard's

For if there is a booby trap he's the one that's a goner



And to rappel from an Apache helicopter all dressed in black firing indiscriminately

Just before dawn as you play pirate on an unarmed civilian ship with humanitarian supplies trying to break an illegal blockade

What bravado it takes to fight off women and murder men holding sticks

As you slaughter them with bullets to the head



What courage, and fearlessness as you hogtied human rights activists and had them sit in the sun for hours

You laugh and kick a few to show your buddies how tough you are

Your a real he-man as you hit those who can't hit back because your the master race

And this is what your armed forces do to those helpless before you, again, again and again



As you harass a kid at a checkpoint because your bored and he gave you a look

So you hit him with the but of your gun and your the civilized one

As you touch his sister inappropriately and he defends

Now hes going to get beat in jail for resisting arrest



But the truly brave and powerful are those who look you in the eye and smile

The real hero are those who take your abuse day after day year after year and never surrender

That school teacher who took us to the top of her house in Hebron to show where the brave Israeli solider peed in her water tank

As she refuse to leave or to give in or pick up a gun, she is a hero by any definition



For those who stay and take it every day of their lives

For those who get jeered and heckled and beat on

For those who refuse to be an enemy as they face every day with a grace far beyond my comprehension

i bow before your fortitude, i stand amazed at your strength, i bleed for you in my heart



My my what tremendous courage it must take to point a tank barrel at a school kid holding school books

What valor one must possess to let colonists burn down orchards, olive groves and pretend it didn't happen

Ah, what men are these who can fire a drone missile at a car, kill a dozen nearby and not even break a sweat

So chivalrous indeed to force a confession from a child and have him sign a document that he cant even read



What of these things you must wonder, yet which i tell you, i swear are all unfortunately true and real

Who is the brave and who the cowards you must choose and decide

For you know in your heart of hearts who is who and what is what

And it's up to you to do something about it if you got the guts