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Collateral Damage

uploaded: Mon, Dec 24, 2012 @ 3:06 AM last modified: Mon, Dec 24, 2012 @ 3:11 AM (add)

by	Robert Warrington
length	6:26
Recommends	Recommends (17)

Not exactly festive fayre. Wishful thinking might put it in the Happy Xmas (War Is Over) tradition, except it’s overlong for a pop single, doesn’t mention Christmas and fails to make use of a children’s choir.

Among the plus points it does include Snowflake, although you have to wait a while for her to come in.

And of course the main instrumental source, a Smilng Cynic track called Whatchagonnado, taken from his brilliant back catalogue on ReverbNation:

http://www.reverbnation.com...

Sound effects come courtesy of various pages at SoundBible:

http://www.soundbible.com/

You can’t make an omelette
Without breaking eggs
And you can’t bomb a country
Without blowing off some little boy’s legs
It’s a matter of regret
That his legs are gone
We’ll send his father an apology
When we send his mother one

Well it killed ten men
That predator drone
Only one was in the Taliban
But one in ten is fine
When your goverment tells you
There’s a war on terror
And civilian casualties
Are within the margin of error

They’re just collateral damage
They’re just more of the same
You can’t make war without collateral damage
Collateral damage is the name of the game
They’re just collateral damage
To that robot plane
Put it down to collateral damage
And keep up that drone campaign

No I didn’t mean to kill your children
I’m not an evil guy
I didn’t plan to kill your children
They just got in the way
We were shooting at a building
They were in the next flat
When big people are fighting little people get hurt
It’s as simple and brutal as that

You talk about military precision
You talk about a surgical strike
You talk about damage limitation
You can talk about it as much as you like
When you blow away some sweetheart
In her own home
There’s no such thing as a smart bomb
All bombs are dumb

She was just collateral damage
She got caught in the blast
Just a burst of collateral damage
She’s not the first and she won’t be the last
She was just collateral damage
On her way to the store
Chalk it up as collateral damage
She won’t be going to the store anymore

What little number have I stumbled into?
How can I even tell?
Is this a family that’s been taken hostage
Or is this a terrorist cell?
It’s dark as hell and the bullets are flying
I’m trying to make a judgement call
There’s only time to act in self-preservation
Self-preservation’s saying ‘Kill them all’

You dare to judge me from your armchair
Or behind some sign with a slogan on
You’re not a soldier under enemy fire
If you’d been where I’d been how much better would you have done?
Guns have no discrimination
Human beings make mistakes
I was acting on misinformation
And once it’s started how can you put on the breaks?

They were just collateral damage
Milk spilled in the sun
No point crying over collateral damage
What’s done is done
They were just collateral damage
Don’t let it stick in your craw
Call it in as collateral damage
These things happen in war