Justifiable Casualty

First off, you hear it said somehow that everything’s fair in love and war
How is it right to destroy a life to the core?
But did you stop and ever wonder what it means to trade your love for a battle scar?
No one wins in the outs and ins of the heart

Civil war and now to mend a broken hearted land will take a hundred years or more
What’s it worth if you’re ending up in the dirt?
She said, “You can’t force an army to care for a loss not theirs.”

Tears of ages dry, for pain is no retainable
We pass the time caught up in our power struggles
All the wasted lives
And every one explainable
We justify every casualty

Sarah Dowd felt her heart bleed out when the letter came
She was a widow now
So much pain, yet we move along every day
She said, “The sound still rings in my head
A dream shot dead.”

Tears of ages dry, for pain is no retainable
We pass the time caught up in our power struggles
All the wasted lives
And every one explainable
We justify every casualty

Oh, we quickly forget the sound of regret
With hate in our heart and blood in the sand
So we’re doomed to repeat mistakes that we keep committing
Don’t we ever suspect that the way we’re living isn’t how it’s meant to be?

March on, hold your flags up high and don’t forget what you’re fighting for
Deadly sins for a mortal win in the corps
She said, “There’s no one who can declare a war on warfare.”