Song: Fueling the Flames of Jihad

[patoadam]

Here is my latest song. Your comments are very welcome! If you would like a midi file of the melody, please email me.


(If you like this song, you may also like Valse Macabre by Mark Mandel.)

"Nothing America could have done would have provided al Qaeda... a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country... It was as if Usama [sic] bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting 'invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq'."
-- Richard A. Clarke, _Against All Enemies_, p. 246

"The acknowledged gain of the war was that a treacherous and murderous dictator was removed, but the rest has been tragedy and failure. It has stimulated terrorism."
-- Hans Blix

"To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero ... assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability."
-- George H.W. Bush

"Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?"
-- Dick Cheney, 1991

Fueling the Flames of Jihad
(formerly known as The Osama bin Laden Happy Dance)
copyright (c) 2007, 2008 P. Alan Thiesen


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

 G  D  C  D7
 G  D  C  Cm

  G        Cm6        G
 Osama bin Laden's my name.
 E7                 A7
 Global jihad is my game.
     D                    D7
 You blew it, George; you couldn't defeat me.
 G          Cm6        Eb        D7
 Here's the reason you failed completely.
 G         Cm6     G              Cm6
 First you gave me five months to flee
            Em        A7           Cm6      D7
 Before you sent your troops in to look for me.
          G                            D7        G
 Then you gave up the hunt, though you say I'm a nutcase;
     Em       Am        C         D7          G          D C Cm
 You opened a new front, but it's just a wild goose chase.


 G                            D7      G
 Thank you, George Bush for invading Iraq!
        G          E7          A7
 You've broken the egg and you can't put it back.
D                       D7
 Instead of crushing my terrorist band,
     G        Cm6     Eb            D7
 You battled Iraqis defending their land.
   G          Cm6   G          Cm6
 A million or more Iraqis have died,
     Em             A7                     D7
 And still you wage war, in your obstinate pride.
 G                            D7      G
 Thank you, George Bush for invading Iraq
     A7          D7          G G7
 And fueling the flames of jihad.
   C      Fm6     C          Fm6
   John McCain confirmed our fears:
           Am        D7         Fm6     G7
   He sees troops in Iraq for a hundred years.
            C                        E7           A7
 Though you may think it odd, I give thanks to my God
             F           G7          C G Am7 D7 G D C Cm
 That you're fueling the flames of jihad.


 Thank you, George Bush, for deposing Saddam.
 He betrayed the True Faith, so I'm happy he's gone.
 He refused to rule by the law that's Koranic.
 A secular Islamic state is oxymoronic.
 He once was your enemy, but don't you see
 He hadn't done a thing to you since '93.
 Thank you, George Bush, for deposing Saddam
 And fueling the flames of jihad.
   Saddam kept terrorists out of Iraq.
   Now anyone can infiltrate to join the attack.
 Though you may think it odd, I give thanks to my God
 That you're fueling the flames of jihad.


 Thank you, George Bush. Is it any surprise
 Your invasion was based on a tissue of lies?
 Those weapons of destruction you searched for with diligence
 Were nothing but a figment of your faulty intelligence.
 Cheney said Iraqis would like invaders;
 They'd greet the US as liberators.
 Thank you, George Bush. Is it any surprise
 You're fueling the flames of jihad?
   You claimed Saddam was on my side.
   Maybe you were hoodwinked, or maybe you lied.
 Though you may think it odd, I give thanks to my God
 That you're fueling the flames of jihad.


 Thank you, George Bush, for not having a clue.
 You put the "duh" in "W".
 You said "Mission Accomplished", but it hadn't begun.
 You fired the Baathists, so they took up their guns.
 Get ready for whatever may be in store,
 From a Shiite theocracy to civil war.
 Thank you, George Bush, for not having a clue
 And fueling the flames of jihad.
   You and I are brothers under the skin.
   We both believe that killing is the way to win.
 Though you may think it odd, I give thanks to my God
             F           G7        
 That you're fueling the flames,
      C          A7
   It isn't your aim, but you're
   D7          G7          C
   Fueling the flames of jihad.

The song ends here. The Bush administration made so many mistakes in Iraq that I had written more verses, but I cut them because the song was too long.

 Thank you, George Bush, for not being too bright.
 You forgot to guard Iraq's reactor sites
 That the UN had guarded ever since Desert Storm
 Making sure that no one was building a bomb.
 So children stole radioactive waste
 And nuclear equipment disappeared with no trace.
 Thank you, George Bush, for not being too bright.
 You're fueling the flames of jihad.
   Can you guess who stole that reactor equipment
   That terrorists could use for uranium enrichment?
 Though you may think it odd, I give thanks to my God
 That you're fueling the flames of jihad.


 Thank you, George Bush, I think you're the best
 At stirring up a worldwide hornet's nest.
 From Cairo to Jakarta, folks are mighty sore.
 Muslims hate their rulers for supporting your war.
 That's the reason Iran's old government fell.
 Now they've got a leader who's mad as hell.
        G               Gaug   Cm6
 He's enriching uranium on the sly,
        Em                     Cm6         D7
 And he vows that the state of Israel must die.
 Thank you, George Bush, I think you're the best
 At fueling the flames of jihad.

I first posted this song on October 16, 2004, but I have been updating it to keep up with changing events in Iraq. I rewrote part of the last verse, because it was somewhat speculative, but you can read the original version here:

 From Jakarta to Islamabad, folks are mighty sore.
 Muslims hate their rulers for supporting your war.
 If the people revolt in Pakistan
 Their nuclear weapons could fall into our hands.
         G                         G7
 If that day should come, won't it be a lark
          C                     A7          D7
 To watch millions of Americans glow in the dark?
 Thank you, George Bush, I think you're the best
 At fueling the flames of jihad.