Such A Dangerous Thing

This thing called patriotism is such a dangerous thing
Young people marching off to war their country's anthem sing
They rev themselves for battle their lust for glory grow
And yet their so called enemy they do not even know.

The people they will be shooting at they have not met before
But they are obeying orders just that and nothing more
Just shoot straight and make each bullet count the order they obey
And kill or you will be killed war's always been that way.

The mother for her young soldier kneel by her bed to pray
She beseech god to watch over her child in battle far away
She finds it hard to sleep at night and she worries every day
For every victory in war with mothers tears we pay.

The so called commander in chief of the armed forces is far from the war zone
He tells his soldiers from afar you do not fight alone
Our thoughts and prayers are with you and of you we feel so proud
And there's a massive hip hooray from the war hungry crowd.

For this thing called patriotism the price can be huge to pay
Yet after war there's always peace some silly people say
And though the war that was to end all wars was fought decades ago
The numbers of the war dead only seem to grow and grow.