Written while watching BBC News
Hi Guys,
I was sitting watching BBC World this morning. There was an American soldier asked about why he was in Iraq. He didn’t comment, just shrugged his shoulders. The following words came into my head, they’re not meant to be political, just personal. If anyone has any musical idea for it, feel free:
Letter to George
I'm sitting here with this gun in my hand
Just a regular guy in a foreign land
I came over here to set the people free
But there's hate in their eyes when they look at me
No flag waving crowds or dancing in the street
Just people with no hope and nothing to eat
I don't know my enemy, I don't know my friend
Is there peace or death around the next hidden bend?
Tell me Sir, what am I fighting for?
You sent me here but I don't know the score
You promised me Sir that our mission was just
But you're not the one in the heat and the dust
It's not your friends bleeding in the sand
You’re in your ivory house with no gun in your hand
Am I fighting for truth? Am I fighting for you?
Or for political statements, I'm not sure are true?
Tell me Sir, when am I coming home?
Cos I'm tired of talking to my kids on the phone
My wife is scared and my parents are brave
But they don't want their son coming home to a grave
My school friends are dying, right here by my side
We're not welcome here and there's nowhere to hide
So please read this letter from this regular guy
I'm not sure why I'm here and I don't want to die
I went through a lot of those feelings when I wrote a tribute album for Vietnam Vets.
I shopped it around to every major label I could get into and no one wanted to deal with the truth Bruffie.
Welcome Home ~ Vietnam Tribute CD
Listen to Welcome Home and try not to swallow hard.
If anyone wants a free Welcome Home CD - drop me a note with your address - I think I have a couple of boxes left.
Great lyric Bruff - I just can’t put myself through the agony again though.
Understood Poppa, I was dubious about posting it here. On reflection, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. I meet quite a few of the G.I.s when they come to Dubai for some down time. Good guys and a little bit lost sometimes.
Hope you weren’t offended Buddy!
Ian
Not at all my friend… Separating the warrior from the war is important for us all.
The hell they are not political.
I won’t say war is never a solution, but almost always it is a very bad one, and in this case let’s call a spade a spade: Iraq was/is a pointless war for King George’s corporate interests that has done a vast amount of harm to world security and the global economy.
Worst part is, now we’ve (USA-ers) have screwed things up there so badly, and we owe it to them to fix it, but we won’t.
I did not serve in the military, but I’ve never met anyone who has served, who has ever said war is good.
A lot of folks from around here serve (since our military depends on recruits from the working poor), and I’ve dozens of stories of father, e.g., missing years - years! - of watching their children grow.
And I’ve dozens of stories of people whose health, physical and mental, are destroyed, who are not getting the care they need.
I’m not a pacifist, but the Iraq war was just evil.
So of course those lyrics are political.
Would any sane person have asked why they were fighting against Hitler?
Or why they were going after the Taliban and bin Laden in Afghanistan? The moral status of those wars is obvious. I’m with Tommy - always write the truth.
There is so precious little of it these days.
Point taken Tom. When I said not political, I meant from the point of view of the guy in the song who doesn’t know why he is where he is. He’s not a political animal, he’s just wondering wtf he’s doing there.
If by political you mean, am I having a go at George?, ok…Yes I am!
Ian
P.S. Now I have to write some music for it, but struggling there.
Don’t like it either … but
If you look at it from an historical view,
Let’s count backwards - 'nam, Korea (still to come), Germany, Japan, Italy,
WWI, Spanish/American, Civil, Revolutionary, etc.
Most (if not all) will come out of the tragedy much better off for
most of the people - down the line. The Middle East is a special
case because of their tribal structure, but eventially they will
be no different than say China today, or India in the near future.
No one want’s their culture messed with, but cultures clash, always
have, - it seems to be the nature of our humanity/civilization.
All in all - the US has ****'ed alot of folks, but they have
helped alot of them too. Things would be different if you or I were
KING - or would they?
I wrote this when i was in my teens…
So frightening, we’re fighting
for peace we have no more
we’ve built ourselves a battlefield
condemned our world to war
but what are we to gain?
can we restrain this terror
feeding on our pain?
so who’s to blame?
Is this right?
is this life?
is this how it’s meant to be?
I don’t see how this suffering
could set us free!
and after them, once again
will there be another human right
won’t there be somebody else to fight?
…Who’s to blame?
still haven’t figured it out!
Quote: (sevenOfeleven @ Aug. 16 2008, 10:21 AM)
Don't like it either ... but
If you look at it from an historical view,
Let's count backwards - 'nam, Korea (still to come), Germany, Japan, Italy,
WWI, Spanish/American, Civil, Revolutionary, etc.
Most (if not all) will come out of the tragedy much better off for
most of the people - down the line. The Middle East is a special
case because of their tribal structure, but eventially they will
be no different than say China today, or India in the near future.
No one want's their culture messed with, but cultures clash, always
have, - it seems to be the nature of our humanity/civilization.
All in all - the US has ****'ed alot of folks, but they have
helped alot of them too. Things would be different if you or I were
KING - or would they?
I've a question, as much for me as fir you. What kind of evidence can we give for claims about what would have happened had we not had this war or that?
Quote:
I've a question, as much for me as fir you.
What kind of evidence can we give for claims about what would have happened had we not had this war or that?
We'd still be doing the inspector dance, while Isreal would have probably
started bombing anyway. I hate to say it but I don't want religeous
nuts with nukes. Out of 49 conflicts in the region - (last time I
checked) 48 of them involved Islamic fundementalists trying to impose
on others. They are not community fish - don't fool yourself.
Maybe the people at heart are somewhat live and let live, but
their leadership says otherwise, and the people don't seem to have
enough between their legs to do something about it. So we have
to do it for them. It's that simple.
BTW - Bruffie
The lyrics are really great.
Eyup Mates!
Well, I’m setting off tomorrow morning for my annual pilgrimage to the World War One battlefields in France. As you read this I will probably be in the Somme.
During the next five days I will visit many cemeteries and stand before many headstones with my head bowed in remembrance and respect.
My generation was the first in a long time to be fortunate enough not to be called to serve. I fear if I had have been I would have proved sadly lacking.
Of all the soldiers’ accounts I have read, their overwhelming thought was not one of patriotism, or good and evil, but simply the desire not to let their mates down. To do their job and go home.
I’ll give the lads a howdy from you all.
Steve