| Dropkick Murphys – Citizen C.I.A. Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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@Dropkick Rover: The Contras were not a group in Colombia that the US "got pissed off at." They were a right-wing paramilitary group in Nicaragua backed by the CIA against the Sandinista government, which had overthrown the US-backed Somoza dictatorship. |
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| Rage Against the Machine – Tire Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Rage Against the Machine is not by any stretch of the imagination a "liberal" band. Liberalism serves the same interests of the oligarchical ruling elite that the right wing does. It may rationalize its policies of exploitation and avarice somewhat differently from the right wing, but it seeks to protect the same structure of power. Who is to say that Kennedy would have ended the Vietnam War? Who is to that he would have stopped supporting the military junta of South Vietnam that he was supporting before he was assassinated? The "sarcasm" is not directed at Kennedy but at the obsessive infatuation over the impending death of a single person, Jackie O, by the media yet a complete "ignorance" of the death, suffering, and misery of thousands upon thousands of the "unpeople" of the world affected by US policy. In this particular case, it is the massive number of Laotians murdered by Nixon (and the ever-present war criminal Kissinger) who was thus treated with high reverence in his eulogies. It is essentially expressing the idea that "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic." |
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| Rage Against the Machine – Tire Me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Well here's my two cents: Maybe it's because it's the most recognizable and common reference in the song, but I think there's being a little too much focus being pressed on the lines regarding Jackie O. As mentioned by Calm Like a Bomb further up the page, this song is about Richard Nixon. In early 1994, Jackie O was diagnosed with cancer. A little later that year, Richard Nixon passed away. During his funeral, the various eulogies given by current and former Presidents, statesmen, and the like were all sugar-coated; they were "respectful." After all, the worst thing that Nixon will be remembered for by the mainstream and the majority of the American public is Watergate. However, also in 1994, as mentioned by heartbeats xxx, there was an attempt by Laos to remove unexploded ordinates and mines. Those mines and bombs were dropped there by the Nixon administration, most notably under the guidance of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, as a part of the secret wars waged by Nixon in Laos and Cambodia against the Pathet Lao and the Khmer Rouge during the Vietnam War. Some may recall the role of Air America in funneling covert troops into those aforementioned countries in order to wage this secret and illegal war. However, these bombings along with other military actions only allowed for the Pathet Lao and the Khmer Rouge to consolidate power, citing these actions as signs of American imperialism and aggression in their propaganda. Nevertheless, Nixon will most likely not be remembered for these war crimes, as exemplified by the sweetened and "respectful" eulogies given after his death. Moreover, Laotians and Cambodians civilians are still suffering today as a result of military actions (mining and bombing) by the Nixon administration decades ago. However, this suffering is superseded by the suffering of a single individual: Jackie Onassis. Her cancer overshadowed it all. To quote Joseph Stalin, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." So, to sum up: "And those colorful words for the Laos frontiersman" The lies from the American government under both the LBJ and Nixon administrations about America's commitment to the fight for "democracy and freedom" in Southeast Asia "Who passed away with the truth Amidst the eulogies of bliss" The sugar-coated remembrance of Nixon, disregarding the crimes he and his administration committed. "Who will know now what I know about you Now that history's a flowery cancerous mess" Jackie O's cancer being the one thing remembered despite the much larger tragedies; the distortion of history into a romanticized and "flowery" narration. "Nah let's see it broken, bloody and undressed" The desire for the truth not to be stifled, distorted, or softened, but to be fully exposed. "Oh, oh, oh please don't die" The "heartbreak" of the American public at the fate befallen to Jackie O while oblivious to the much larger tragedies abroad. |
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