Twenty Years

To the tune of "Penny Lane"

In twenty years we really should have learned a thing or two,

But we never seem to know what we don't know.

The locals watched us come and go;

Look out below!

On a small dirt road there is a hidden IED,

And little children laugh at us behind our backs,

While our brass let facts go down the drain.

Very strange.

Twenty years for us to kill and some to die,

While all that we can do is wonder why

We're in Afghanistan.

Twenty years repeating Soviet mistakes

And long before there were the soldiers of the Queen.

And lots of social turmoil in between.

You know what I mean.

Twenty years is our new record for a war.

While we're still wondering what for.

Just to repeat Saigon?

Two trillion dollars and so many precious lives

All so carelessly just thrown away

"And what about the guilty ones?" you say.

They'll never pay.

Twenty years and four American presidents

Hardly straining at the puppet strings

You know it has a most familiar ring

It's so obscene.

Twenty years for us to kill and some to die,

While all that we could do was wonder why

We were in that land.

Twenty years for us to kill and some to die,

While all that we could do was wonder why:

Afghanistan?  

David Martin

Watch Buelahman’s video.

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