Music's War on Politics
.... That there are reasons that we could and should be over there but those aren't the reasons we are. The next line that he moves onto he is echoing a famous line said by Winston Churchill who said "We have nothing to offer but blood, sweat, tears and toil." What Churchill is saying in this is that the British are living free and will continue to live free no matter what the Germans were going to do in World War II. That they would fight to the last man lay dead on the field to be free. "Don't give me no shit about blood, sweat, tears, and toil/ it's all about the price of oil" (Bragg). What Bragg means by this is he does not believe that we are over there to free the Iraqi people; we are over there to take advantage of a torn nation, and a torn people. He refuses to be intimidated by the rhetoric of patriotism into being silent. He goes on in his song to talk about the media that is covering the war "Voices on the Radio/ tell us we're going to war" (Bragg). In this we see Bragg trying to expose the media, to tell us about how the media was used by the government to sell this oil war, that all the things stated to the American and British publics through the media is all one big cover up. Bragg then moves on to talk about the soldiers who are fighting this war. "Those brave men and women in uniform/ they want to know what they're fighting for." Here he is trying to get to the emotional side of people, telling the people that the soldiers think that they are fighting for nothing. Bragg suggests that the soldiers thought that they were going there to help the Iraqi's and to find WMD, but in fact they are there to secure the oil for their countries. He also talks about the fact that even the generals in the military are questioning the reasons for invading Iraq. That they want to know that if they do this how are they going to get out. "The generals want to hear the end game." He is saying that the generals think that if they get in to Iraq that we will not be able to get out of there, that it will be a quagmire like Vietnam. The last thing that he talks about in this verse is how the allies of the United States do not agree with us going to war. The first Gulf War they were behind us, but that is not true in this case. In this case the allies of the United States will not back us. "The allies won't approve the plan/ but the oil men in the white house/ they just don't give a damn." He is reaffirming...