Thousands of miles from the Holy Land,
it’s all too convenient to moralize.
So all I will do is count my luck
and denounce vile warmongers’ damned lies.
War may be a necessary evil
or a way for society to advance.
Yet it's a crime against humanity,
a failure of civilization’s slow dance.
For thousands of years, historians say,
there’s been conflict in the Middle East.
But, as Thomas Mann noted, war’s just a
coward's escape from the problems of peace.
Killing a boy on his fifth birthday
or shooting a 90-year-old in the head
does little to further anyone’s cause.
All it causes is further terror and dread.
Talk all you want about the glories of war.
Ignore its maimed victims and their screams.
Don’t forget, though, one inalienable truth:
The end rarely justifies the means.
Would-be warriors find as many pretexts
for war as they do for stiffing their brother.
There’s nothing, of course, holy about it.
It's a sickness … a virus like no other.