at a loss for words

reading the statements concerning battalion movements and
the possibility of continued disturbances evolving into
thunderstorms of ancillary casualties and random acts
of personal heroism in the face of miserable stupidity . . . .

ah, well, enough of that:

trying to describe civilly the destruction
(the lost children and dogs in the street)
of a moral character into chaos and disorder
(the blood vapor and severed limbs)
the reduction of ethics into contingencies
(random shots heard out of the blue sky)
the dollars spent and the mistakes made
(wailing over our unburied dead)
while pursuing hidden objectives
(blood and fire and dirt and pain)
wrapped in the flag of our fathers
(the darkness falling)
we are no longer the people we say we are