...in light of various thoughts about violence and pacifism that have been cropping up of late, and proximately nudged to the surface by a chance reference in lil_shepherd's journal, but absolutely not related to the post in which the nudgery occurred. I can't remember if I've posted this song before, but if I have, apologies for being boring.

IF *I* HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER
(Tune: "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by Bruce Cockburn)

Here come the freedom fighters
Some new atrocity
Everybody hates them
Just for fighting to be free.
I can understand their anger
'Cause they're people just like me
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd throw it in the sea.

I don't believe in holy causes
Or in the lines upon some map
I don't believe in fading empires
Bolstered up by cant and crap
And when I see the death of tyrants
Sure I want to cheer and clap
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd melt it down for scrap.

On the broad banks of the Lethe
Stand the corpses one and all
Old men, young men, wives and children
Late arrivals at the ball
I cry for all the victims
Who heard their country's call
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd smash it on that wall.

I want to make them all see
Every daughter and son
They think if they just pass the karma
One day it will all be gone
I know the torturers and killers
Ought to pay for what they've done
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would not pass it on.

Say I've never lost a loved one
That's a truth I can't deny
Say that if it ever happened
All my high ideals would die
Say I'd never hold my anger
Or let the bloodlust pass me by
Well, if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I might fail, but I would try!