-- Fixin'-to-die Rag, Country Joe MacDonald, 1968
(modified without permission)
countryjoe.com
There is no shortage of would-be songwriters trying to capitalize on Country Joe's one and only fine work.
For many of us, Fixin to Die had special significance. It was a day of idealism and innocence, as well as a day in which a horrible, weak, liberal leadership had taken us into a war we couldn't win because he would not allocate the resources to do the job.
Today, we're acting out of necessity. While Country Joe wrote a fine song (just one, though), he isn't the stuff of which national leadership is made.
Bottom line: Protest songs about Vietnam were warranted, protest songs about Iraq are naive. If, four years from now, we are still fighting in Iraq with 58,000 dead, I can assure you I'll be standing in line demanding we get out of the quagmire Bush created. But I see the current effort as a worthwhile trade. The loss of life is dreadful, but reality is that the number of lives being lost today pale by comparison to those which have been lost at the hands of Saddam. |
