Lyrics - The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions by Billy Bragg

[AP]

This is from a 1990 Billy Bragg album. The song is about Regan-Bush and central America. However, refine this a little -- change the term "capitalism" to "cronyism" -- and you have a song about Iraq.

Here we are, seeking out the Reds (Arabs)
Trying to keep the communists (terrorists) in order
Just remember when you're sleeping in your beds
They're (the WMDs) only two days drive(45 minutes) from the Texas border (deployability)

How can a country large as ours
Be scared of such a threat
Well if they won't work for us
They're against us you can bet
They may be sovereign countries
But you folks at home forget
That they all want what we've got
But they don't know it yet

We're making the world safe for capitalism (cronyism)

Here we come with our candy and our guns
And our corporate muscle marches in behind us
For freedom's just another world for nothing left to sell
And if you want narcotics we can get you those as well

We help the multi-nationals
When they cry out protect us
The locals scream and shout a bit
But we don't let that affect us
We're here to lend a helping hand
In case they don't elect us
How dare they buy our products
Yet still they don't respect us

We're making the world safe for capitalism(cronyism)

If you thought the army
Was here protecting people like yourself
I've some news for you
We're here to defend wealth
Away with nuns(reporters) and bishops(mullahs)
The Good Lord(Allah) will help those that help themselves
I've some news for you
We're here to defend wealth

We're making the world safe for capitalism(cronyism)

http://www.lyrics.net.ua/song/97107

[ConsAreLiars]

1. Before Billy Bragg, Phil Ochs

http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/i-dreamed-i-saw-phil-ochs.html
I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night
By Billy Bragg

i dreamed i saw phil ochs last night
alive as you or me
says i to phil "you're ten years dead"
"i never died' says he
"i never died" says he

the music business killed you phil
they ignored the things you said
and cast you out when fashions changed
says phil "but i ain't dead"
says phil "but i ain't dead"

the fbi harassed you phil
they smeared you with their lies
says he "but they could never kill
what they could not compromise
i never compromised"

"though fashion's changed and critics sneered
the songs that i have sung
are just as true tonight as then
the struggle carries on
the struggle carries on"

with the song of freedom rings out loud
from valleys and from hills
where people stand up for their rights
phil ochs is with us still
phil ochs inspires us still.


And From Phil Ochs: http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/white-boots.html

White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land
By Phil Ochs

The pilots playing poker in the cockpit of the plane
The casualties arriving like the dropping of the rain
And a mountain of machinery will fall before a man
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

It's written in the ashes of the village towns we burn
It's written in the empty bed of the fathers unreturned
And the chocolate in the childrens eyes will never understand
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

Red blow the bugles of the dawn
The morning has arrived you must be gone
Like cold/old(?) whores following tired armies

Train them well, the men who will be fighting by your side
And never turn your back if the battle turns the tide
For the colours of a civil war are louder than commands
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

Blow them from the forest and burn them from your sight
Tie their hands behind their back and question through the night
But when the firing squad is ready they'll be spitting where they stand
At the white boots marching in a yellow land

Red blow the bugles of the dawn
The morning has arrived you must be gone
And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls
Like cold whores following tired armies

The comic and the beauty queen are dancing on the stage
Raw recruits are lining up like coffins in a cage
We're fighting in a war we lost before the war began
We're the white boots marching in a yellow land

And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls
like cold whores following tired armies

[MinnFats]

2. Gawd...I forgot that bullshit about the Sandinista hordes coming...

....over the Texas border if we didn't take care of them in Nicaragua......we lose sight sometimes of what lame bullshitters the Reagan people were.....yet they served as mentors to the current generation of bullshitters....