Why do we fight these foolish wars?
Deployed by men as human as I
How can we kill ourselves?
And feel like we did something right?
What gave us strength to pull the trigger?
Allowed us to care about who is bigger?
Who enabled all this pain?
What is this lesson? To suppress our aggression?

Then what about the anger?
Why was that created?
Just to have eachother fighting 'till we've been eradicated?

If only we'd come together and let go of our flags
But we don't care until it's us wearing the dog tags

Gripping death in my hands I pray for forgiveness
Hoping that whatever God left long ago would come back
I turn my head and see my brothers in ruin
But what I really see is fate because it'll happen to me soon

Why should I have to pay for what that bastard devised?
I won't kill a man in any battle you've organized
Land of the free, or so they said long ago
I guess that's why they send a draft
'Cause we're free, ya know?

Boys become men overnight in fear
Landing in an area they know nothing about
Taught to kill, and forced to hate
To be a machine and let go of all the feeling

Shoot the guys who're told to be bad
Laugh and cheer when your task is done
Look at the body and take all he has
But don't realize, he's just as human as you
A father's son

How is this man's life more important than mine
For me to fall in his hands, pulled away from my sanctuary?
Face in the mud, eyes aimed through an ironsight
All I can do is forget about home because I'm here to die

I look up at the sky and see parachutes glide
My thoughts shut down, fear takes over, running for cover
The smoke of explosives contaminates the air
There's nothing I can do but play along in this affair

Everywhere I turn is a firefight
They will close around me
Here comes the end of my life
I hide in a corner and pray I'm found soon
By a friend of my country that I never paid attention to

How is this man's life more important than mine
For me to fall in his hands, pulled away from my sanctuary?
Face in the mud, eyes aimed through an ironsight
All I can do is forget about home because I'm here to die

(I'm here to die
Why must we destroy ourselves for old white men
Who don't even care?)

Michael Barnes © 2003