Hellmand 2010

The air is thick with dust and flame, who started this? Who is to blame? Shells and rockets rake the field yet neither side is like to yield There’s no retreat, no going back, just blindly forward in attack Men are wounded. Men lose limbs. And those who die we praise with hymns Or stand to hear the lesson read, yet nothings changed, THESE MEN ARE DEAD We strive to bring their bodies back in boxes draped in union jack They’ve paid the price and given all but their pay is stopped from when they fall These fathers’ lovers’ brothers sons have fallen to each other’s guns Do politicians really care, they might if they were fighting there They praise all those who serve our nation yet try to cut their compensation It’s never those whom nations lead get stuck in hell to die or bleed They just cajole our sons and brothers to go to war and murder others Both sides’ young men fall for the trick. Greed, religion, politic That foreign Johnny turban clad is really just an Afghan lad Who with religious hatred filled joined the fray was quickly killed Likewise the lad in kaki gear is just a lad from over here. Courageous, patriotic, smart he volunteers to play his part He leaves behind his child and wife and goes abroad to lose his life The Commons reads his name aloud saying that we should be proud Should we be proud when we’re to blame NO WE SHOULD HANG OUR HEADS IN SHAME