They meet our gaze and hold it tight,

They stand their ground, prepared to fight,

And every man that sees it stands in awe,

Endless soldiers standing brave,

Prepared to fight until the grave,

For this my friend is what is known as war,

Whether arrows, sword and mace and chain,

Or rocket, bomb and aeroplane,

It’s when a man must kill and feel no guilt,

Whether machine gun round or hand grenade,

Or way back in the olden days,

A sabre point sank right up to the hilt,

And when the war is lost or won,

And all the killing has been done,

And it looks like peace can once more be restored,

Unless of course we disagree,

And call upon our military,

For that my friend is what we know as war,

Of course civilians are killed,

They are on every battlefield,

You cannot guarantee where weapons land,

Whether laser guided projectile,

Or catapult from half a mile,

For things don’t always go the way they’re planned,

And there always will be friendly fire,

To say there wont would be a liar,

It’s been that way a thousand years or more,

We say we’ve learnt from that mistake,

Then do the same for heavens sake,

Because that my friend is what is known as war,

It’s blood and guts, no glamour here,

Whether armoured tank or Zulu spear,

The end result it more or less the same,

Somebody lives, somebody dies,

The victor cheers, a mother cries,

And all concerned swear they were not to blame,

And everybody’s God is wise,

And he is always on our side,

Come on now, do we really think that’s true ?

Do you think, if he does exist,

He’d sanctify a thing like this?

And forgive the things that war requires we do?

The killing of our fellow man,

Whether miles away or hand to hand,

The shear destruction that we cause and more,

The maiming of the innocents,

The refugees in towns of tents,

For this my friend is the bloody truth of war,

No-one is right, no-one is wrong,

We go to where we don’t belong,

And right goes to the side that has the strength,

And whether they be good or bad,

From Agincore, to now Baghdad,

We never learn a thing from war my friend,

Except how to build a better bomb,

And who next we should drop it on,

Which side this time will benefit us most,

Oh we’ll use the moral argument,

Before our soldiers have been sent,

Across the sea to some-one else’s coast,

The trouble is, I have to say,

We cannot find a better way,

Even when the death toll starts to soar,

For dictatorships, and tyranny,

Must pay the price for cruelty,

And this my friend is why we go to war,

If only God would make it so,

That peace ruled over all the globe,

But until he does, now, as in the days of yore,

Mankind will fight and he will kill,

He always has, and he always will,

For mankind my friend is prone to go to war,

By S.E.Ralph