C C/B  Am
F      G
C C/B  Am
F      G

[Verse 1]
C                C/B          Am
Came out of arrivals was somethin' in his eyes that wasn't
 F                                   G
there and you'd been waitin' for him   beneath the white florescent
C                  C/B           Am
glare he throws his bags down he picks you up he's spinnin' you
 F                                 G                          C
around holdin' so tightly to you, bet you cannot even make a sound
             C/B              Am
this is your favorite mem'ry, of him polished beautifully,
    F                             G
you thought about it often both reflexively and dutifully
     C             C/B                 Am
you didn't care who he was fighting or who he was fighting for
      F                                   G
only that your father finally come home from your father's war

[Interlude]
C C/B  Am
F      G

[Verse 2]
     C             C/B        Am
now 18 years have passed and we're still in Afghanistan
     G                           F
With IED's and armored HUMVEE's, Burger Kings, quicksand
         C                C/B              Am
and the folks who started up the fight are getting old and dyin'
           G                     F
and it's harder to remember just why the hell we're fighting
       C               C/B               Am
so we wrap the reasons in the flag, show films of 9-11
       G                              F
every Sunday they remind us that all soldiers go to heaven
       C         C/B            Am
is a heaven for Americans, the ones who please the Lord
   G                        F
Remember even Jesus had to fight his father's war

[Interlude]
C C/B  Am
F      G

[Verse 3]
    C               C/B       Am
You meet a man you love, who reminds you of your father
    G                            F
the way he used to be before his outlook got so dark
    C                  C/B           Am
he sweeps you off your feet, carries you across the threshhold
       G                                 F
of a new life then he ships out, you are 22 years old
    C                C/B          Am
he calls you when he can from an undisclosed location
     G                                      F
then somethin' happens and he's sent home, put on medication
    C               C/B              Am
he wakes up every night and they are 15 in his chest
           G                              F
with your head upon his shoulder you can hear your father's war

[Interlude]
C C/B  Am
F      G
C C/B  Am
F      G

[Verse 4]
          C            C/B             Am
but now laser guided missiles, beams, snuff films of their emulation
G                         F
fossil fuel removal architecture runs of radiation
C                  C/B              Am
lines of code all stowed away down deep inside a terabite
    G                       F
an economic serfdom has conferred upon the non-compliant
     C              C/B              Am
you don't have to understand it all, that's okay, no, but it does,
      G                                F
it's hard for souls to comprehend the horrors they come in
               C              C/B              Am
and thus they do their work behind the wall behind a screen, behind the door,
      G                                 F
so they don't see what he saw when it was your father's war

[Interlude]
C C/B  Am
F      G


[Verse 5]
           C            C/B                 Am
so he'll finish off his tour of duty, in an office in Maryland
   G                               F
facilitating drone strikes in the border towns of Pakistan
C                C/B                 Am
this is all he's told you and it's amazing he's said anything
            G                               F
but you've seen it on the cable news, the hospitals and weddings
     C                   C/B                Am
at first you think he'll be alright, he'll come home from work each evenin'
          G                                    F
but he's no longer all love and light, he's silent or he's seethin'
          C                C/B                  Am
and you love him more than anything, but you've seen this all before
        G                              F
and in every way that matters this is still your father's war

[Verse 6]
          C                C/B         Am
this is still your father's war, it's still your father's father's war
     G                               F
and it's his father's war, and his father before his father's war
     C               C/B              Am
and this is how it's gonna be, right down through generations
         G                      F
war improvement only on it's cruelties with innovation
C                  C/B                  Am
lay the dead, and talk to dead, like flowers on cut roses
    G                                     F
improve the weak, and take revenge, and slaughter without notice
          C            C/B                    Am
and have everything we want, and with what's left we'll wipe the floor
     G                         F
so maybe it's just easier to fight our father's war

[Outro]
C C/B  Am
F      G