The Village Where Nothing Happened

The Army commander spoke to the media
He said, “We are a nation of laws
“We do not target civilians
And we only bomb with cause”
And he said as he looked into the camera
With a cold, bone-chilling stare
“As for the village of Kama Ado
Nothing happened there”

In the village where nothing happened
Most people had risen from bed
Women were preparing to cook
And make sure every mouth would be fed
Just before the beginning of Ramadan
Water was set out to boil
Little fires were heating tin kettles
Upon the dry Afghan soil

In the village where nothing happened
Children played in the street
Men were bending in prayer
With no shoes on their feet
It was another day like so many
That had gone down before
And nobody told Kama Ado
Just what horrors lay in store

In the village where nothing happened
Nobody knew
That this place would be changed forever
By an American B-52
The bombs fell all around them
So many a deafening blast
And the people of Kama Ado
Learned that life can end so fast

In the village where nothing happened
The houses collapsed in the morn
Not one terrorist died there
But maybe some were born
In the village of Kama Ado
There are no underground caves
There’s just rubble and dust and craters
And 115 new graves

“The Village Where Nothing Happened” appears on the 2002 CD, Hang a Flag in the Window.  A version of this song has been covered by Charlie King and Karen Brandow.

This song is based on an article with the same title, by Richard Lloyd Parry.  Using Parry’s reporting of the details of the scene after the bombing, the article and the song paint a picture of the village of Kama Ado, Afghanistan after the US Air Force bombed it, killing 115 people.  After the bombing, a reporter asked a Department of Defense official what happened in the village of Kama Ado, and he said, “nothing happened there.”