Our Fathers War

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Other]
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