Universal Soldier
Music & Lyrics by Buffy Sainte-Marie
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.
He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
He knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend or me for you.
He's fighting for China,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for his country,
He's fighting for his god,
He's fighting for the good of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he's never seen the writing on the wall.
But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned them at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from you and me,
And oh my brothers can't you see,
This is not the way to put the end to war.