Toggle Menu

We Were Ready

CHORUS

We were ready--

Oh, so ready.

Sure, it happened, but those were the breaks.

And remember

That we never, ever make mistakes.

Calvin Trillin

April 22, 2004

(Sung to the 9/11 Commission by the Bush Boys’ Choir, to the tune of “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story)

CHORUS

We were ready–

Oh, so ready.

Sure, it happened, but those were the breaks.

And remember

That we never, ever make mistakes.

Sure, some mornings

Bush got warnings

To beware of some terror by air–

Just vague warnings,

And the numbers of the flights weren’t there.

SOLO BY JOHN ASHCROFT

Yes, that FBI guy did say I

Wished terror reports left unsaid.

What a terrible lie!

From the FBI!

With my go-ahead,

God will strike him dead!

CHORUS

We were ready–

Oh, so ready.

To repulse any foreign assault.

So what happened

Really had to be Bill Clinton’s fault.

Calvin TrillinCalvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”


Latest from the nation