“I have my opinions, which I’ve stated in the tune,” Mick Jagger told USA Today. “Maureen Dowd is no more qualified to have opinions than I am.”

There has been some back and forth about whether or not the song “Sweet Neo Con” is about Bush – judge for yourself. Jagger claims that the song takes aim at the staunch conservatives in the Bush administration who were the driving force behind the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. “It is certainly very critical of certain policies of the administration, but so what! Lots of people are critical,” Jagger told “Extra.” “It is not really aimed at anyone,” Jagger said on the entertainment-news show’s Wednesday edition. “It’s not aimed, personally aimed, at President Bush. It wouldn’t be called ’Sweet Neo Con’ if it was.”

Oh, by the way – “neocon” is a word with a long history and conflicting definitions. I believe that the flavor of “neocon” expressed in this song does not refer to former liberals who have turned to the right, or to academic and/or Jewish political theorists that support freedom, democracy and civil rights (so hold the “anti-semite” accusations and remember that we now disappear people and hold them without trial and torture them – practices so reminiscent of Nazi reality that the accusation is itself astounding).

In America, when we say “neocon” we refer less to conservatives of the past then we do to the so-called current “conservatives” who have contributed to “expansive geopolitical purposes” (imperialism, American empire), pre-emptive war rather than diplomacy or working with other countries to control threats, the bankrupting of the USA, machiavellian corporate greed and fascistic takeover rather than democratic capitalism, deceit and lies to the American people, and so on. We probably need a new word, and it wasn’t wise to use this one as the title.

We need a word to describe the combined rule of the aggressive “empire” neo-neocons, the pseudo-christics who play on hatred and fear by appealing to a god that certainly isn’t the god of christianity, and the slash and burn global capitalists who value profits to the top of the pyramid more than they do human life at all, much less their own human workforce. Short-term profits for the few, general rape and pillage under the names of american values, freedom, etc. – that’s what current American “neocons” are all about. The different factions are at odds with one another, to be sure, but the lethal nature of this administration for our country’s future relies on the poisonous mix of all of these.

I can’t find a complete copy of the lyrics of “Sweet Neo Con”, but this is what I’ve been able to piece together from different sites. I’ll compare when the cd comes out. This song was not performed at the opening concert (Fenway Park Boston August 21) so I’m guessing you’re not going to hear it much.

Sweet Neo Con A Bigger Bang, Rolling Stones, to be released Sept. 6 2005

You ride around your white castle,
On your little white horse
You lie to your people,
and blame it on your war of course

You call yourself a Christian,
I call you a hypocrite
You call yourself a patriot,
well I think you’re full of shit

Oh, sweet Neo Con,
What path have you led them on?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
Is it time for the atom bomb?

You parade around in costume,
Expecting to be believed
But as the body bags stack up,
We believe we’ve been deceived

The horror you’ve unleashed,
Will backfire with more grief
When will you ever learn,
Sweet Neo Con, as the world burns?

Oh, sweet Neo Con
What path have you led them on?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
Is it time for the atom bomb?

How come you’re so wrong?
My sweet neo-con,
where’s the money gone,
in the Pentagon.

It’s liberty for all,
democracy’s our style,
unless you are against us,
then it’s prison without trial.

Oh, sweet Neo Con,
What path have you led them on?
Oh, sweet Neo Con,
Is it time to drop the bomb?