100 Years

100 years have passed

Since the war to end all wars,

Instead we send them now to fight and die,

For the politician’s cause.

Bayonet, bullet, bomb and gas

The methods may have changed

Mercenary armies, remote drone strikes

Long range missiles now take aim.

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100 years have passed

Was their sacrifice in vain?

How many more must die once more, now

For barely veiled corporate gain.

Clear cut lines no more define combatants good and bad

Instead we bring you live at Five

Radicalised jihad and

Insurgency televised.

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100 years have passed

Since the order to cease fire

Yet still pushing propaganda

Their media stoke the pyres

Suicide bomb in Kabul,

Mass genocide in Rwanda

Children kneecapped in Palestine

Hospitals bombed in Syria

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100 years have passed

Back then each one thought their side right

And now “the only good terrorist’s a dead one”

Insists TV’s state sponsored hype.

I ask you all one question,

I don’t care if you think it trite

But when do we learn the lesson

Stemming from such senseless loss of life.

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100 years have passed

Since the war to end all wars.

I wonder now as they did back then

What the fuck was it all for?

Most were poor, them that died

In the War To End All Wars

Shot, gassed, gouged, stabbed and blown to bits

For someone else’s cause.

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100 years have passed

Since the war to end all wars

When will the bombing stop

When will the fighting pause.

100 years have passed

Since the war to end all wars

I hope again the guns will cease

So the world may mark in some small way a Century of peace

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© Dan Jones 13/11/2018