[Verse 1]
I heard the call to meet a foe
I’d never seen or heard until
the headlines told me I must go
somewhere across the sea to fight.
Our enemy was over there:
repeatedly they drove that point
and kept on drumming up a march
that sent us sailing over there.
[Chorus]
But now that decades have elapsed
they ask us where was over there
Where did we go and for what cause?
They sank a boat and threatened war
and then they offered quite a bribe
to give our neighbors back the lands
we took in conquest over here.
[Verse 2]
Our dearest Uncle Sam came quick
to dress us in his uniforms
that still weren’t made when we showed up
to train with brooms and charge with sticks.
A barrel then became a horse
until the real ones could be sent
with us to fronts we’d never seen
to feel the wrath of new machines.
[Chorus]
But now that decades have elapsed
they ask us where was over there
Where did we go and for what cause?
They sank a boat and threatened war
and then they offered quite a bribe
to give our neighbors back the lands
we took in conquest over here.
[Bridge]
We drilled at home, but learned in war
to stick around or die too young
defending what, we couldn’t tell
but taking lives too young to end.
[Verse 3]
From trenches dug in mud so deep
you sank up to your knees each step
you tried to wade through floating shit
and that was where we trained for real.
We faced the rats and fought disease
we lived with lice in silent fights
when shells weren’t screaming overhead
with shocking blasts that pierced our nerves.
[Chorus]
But now that decades have elapsed
they ask us where was over there
Where did we go and for what cause?
They sank a boat and threatened war
and then they offered quite a bribe
to give our neighbors back the lands
we took in conquest over here.
[Outro]
And when the guns rang out their last
we thought the threat of war was gone
as if we’d chastened all such thoughts
but they came back to take revenge.
Lyrics, Bill Graham
