"COURAGEOUS RESTRAINT": A KIND OF ENCOMIUM

       

"Pentagon sources report that a design for a new combat decoration

 is under consideration, to be known as "Courageous Restraint". The

 medal would be awarded to service personnel who "voluntarily refrain

 from returning fire, if there is likelihood of injuring innocent non-combatants in the target area." -- News Item 

(Tune: You guessed it)

Well, some genius, we hear, with his brains in his rear,
Has proposed a new medal for "valor"--
Not for slaying our foes, as at first you'd suppose,
Nor even to cause them cold pallor.
       Chorus: Hold! Hold on the range!
                       Lest you make a poor Muslim to faint,
                       If his fire's not returned,
                       You may find you have earned
                       An award for "Courageous Restraint".
If to shoot you refuse, when a sniper cuts loose,
Though your buddy is plugged through the brain,
You could win a bronze "gong", and be lauded in song,
Should you aim in, then bravely refrain.
       Chorus:         Hold! Hold on the range!
                       For a kid may be right in the way,
                       And a mother goes wild
                       When you pop off her child
                       In the midst of his innocent play.
You must cease, if you please, from applied trigger squeeze,
Or you may make a martyr or saint,
For the object in mind is the merciful kind,
A Gold Star for "Courageous Restraint".
       Chorus: Hold! Hold on the range!
                       You'd be hailed as a hero, some day,
                       And be shipped in a case
                       To the Dover Air Base
                       As your body arrives DOA.
RR 8-27-10