Verse One:

War has taken my country... Brother fighting his brother... It will be what it will be... See how we kill each other...

War it ain't no way to live... It ain't no way to die... Takes all that you can give... Takes every tear you cry...

Instrumental-------------Steel drum rhythm with short lead transition-----------

Verse Two:

War along the borders... Kills the father and the mother... Soldiers acting on their orders... Little Sister... Who will take care of your Brother...?

Their blood is crying from the ground... Who will reap the seed they've sown...? as you turn to run... pray that God will take them home...

Hook

let me have my country... Leave me to my home... Go back to your land of plenty... Leave this man alone...

You have come to kill the people... Watch them weep and moan... Come to kill our spirit... Why don't you take yourself home...

Instrumental----------------------------------------------Long Lead-----------------------------------

Verse Three:

See the hills light up with fire... Young men running to their graves... Bad news coming down the wire... But you tell me Jesus saves...

Children sleeping in the gutters... Bodies lying in the street... Machine gun stutters... Pray... Your soul to keep...

Bridge:

Generals send their orders down... From their bunkers underground...

Freedom fighters honor bound... March to death without a sound...

Death is falling from the sky... Did you march today to die...?

Why is no one asking why...? too sad to cry...

Verse Four:

See it on your television... It all seems so far away... Think it's real think it isn't... Anyway... Don't affect you today...

Take off your silver glasses... Take a good look around... As your time passes... may be you... that is lying on the ground...

Hook

let me have my country... Leave me to my home... Go back to your land of plenty... Leave this man alone...

You have come to kill the people... Watch them weep and moan... Come to kill our spirit... Why don't you take yourself home...

Instrumental----------------------------------------------Long Lead----------Steel Drum---------------

Verse Five:

Justify your means... It is not you who has to die... Tell me it isn't as it seems... Still... You can not answer why...

When judgment comes upon our heads... We will stand as we must... His words can raise us from the dead... or... return us to the dust...

Instrumental-------------------------------Short Steel Drum Rhythm--------------------------------

Verse Six:

I got to get away from here... This life is taking a toll... Always living in fear... I am... Less than whole...

Blood is welling up in fountains... Shooting up into the sky... I'm going home to my mountains... There is where I'll die...

Hook / W Xtro

let me have my country... Leave me to my home... Go back to your land of plenty... Leave this man alone...

You have come to kill the people... Watch them weep and moan... Come to kill our spirit... Why don't you take yourself home...

Why don't you take yourself home... Leave us to our war at home... Take yourself home... Leave this man alone... Leave me to... My war at home... … … ...

Why I Wrote It:

When I was a kid Vietnam was all consuming. The hippies hated it (I wasn't quite old enough to be a Hippy but I liked the drug, rock and Roll, sex culture), society was torn. Young men kept dying. The T.V. Was full of news stories. They followed the soldiers into firefights. It was very graphic and there were kids all over the place that sat in front of televisions and watched that violence.

I saw dead men, children. Children crying, burned, separated from loved ones. The song came from that, although, really, war is war. It could be just as applicable to what's going on now in the middle east... … … ...

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