Peter Tracy: Music

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A ballad about what happened to Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch and the reasons behind the military’s lies to the families about what really happened to their children.

Pat Tillman was a football star
He was playin’ real good—he was gonna go far.
But 911 happened and he heard the call
Turned down the money & he left it all.
He signed up with Uncle Sam,
Found himself in Afghanistan.
Then the news came out that he was dead,
Fighting the Taliban they said.

His brother in the same unit heard about the fight
Something ‘bout the story just didn’t seem right.
People acted funny—something was wrong
Nobody could tell him what was goin’ on.
“He was a war hero,” was all they would say.
But the funny feeling never went away.
He was a hero, too bad he had to die.
And it’s too bad that the story was just a lie.

Well it turned out that the Pentagon ordered the lies.
Turned out he was killed by our own guys.
Turned out his family wouldn’t play along.
It was a real good story, but they said it was wrong..
But the Pentagon has a war to sell
And friendly fire doesn’t sell too well
Why would the Pentagon lie like that?
It’s coming from the top—and I’m smelling a rat.

If this story has a familiar stench,
You might be thinkin’ ‘bout Jessica Lynch.
Back in Iraq in 2003—you might have seen a movie of her on TV.
She was a Rambo Girl cut down in a fight.
But once again the story wasn’t quite right
They couldn’t shut her up and she wouldn’t take a fall
She turned down all the glory to expose them all.

Recruitment is pretty thin so far—and it shows how desperate they are.
Inventing heroes to sell a war—they haven’t had to stoop this low before.
Don’t underestimate this crew—There’s nothing that these guys won’t do.
Before they go and bomb Iran, let’s stop these bastards if we can.
The war on terror goal is clear—control the populace with fear.
This old tactic, tried and true, worked pretty well for Hitler too.
The atmosphere we’re livin’in—just seems so un-American
And if we don’t speak out today--our silence says it’s all OK.

© Peter Tracy 2007