Are you believing the morning papers?
War is coming back in style
There's generals here, advisers there
And Russians nibbling everywhere
The chessboard's filling up with red
We make more profits when we blow off their heads

Economy is looking bad, lLet's start another war (when ya get drafted!)
Fan the fires of racist hatred, we want total war (when ya get drafted!)

Drooling fingers, panic buttons
Playing with missiles like they're toys
There's easy money, easy jobs
Especially when you build the bombs
That blow big cities off the map
Just guess who profits when we build 'em back up

Yeah, what Big Business wants Big Business gets, it wants a war (when ya get drafted!)
Trilateral Commission goonies laugh and scheme for more (when ya get drafted!)

Call the Army, call the Navy, stocked with kids from slums (when ya get drafted!)
If you can't afford a slick attorney we might make you a spy

Forget your demonstrations, kids today sit on their ass (when ya get drafted!)
Just a six-pack and you're happy we're prepared for when ya get drafted
When ya get drafted!


Lyrics submitted by Ice

When Ya Get Drafted Lyrics as written by East Bay Ray Jello Biafra

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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When Ya Get Drafted song meanings
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11 Comments

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  • +3
    General Comment
    Love the line: "If you can't afford a slick attorney We might make you a spy".....followed by that weird, creepy but awesome guitar rift
    labtech2659on October 29, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment
    Are you believing the morning papers?..... A good start, and an obvious inference to the way the media is used for propoganda purposes, and to manipulate public opinion. Russians nibbling everywhere.... See above. The public then, and still now, were indoctrinated to believe that Russia and Communism were the enemy, instead of even allowing for the possibility for co-existing peacefully. Both sides used this to maintain and increase control over their population, and to ensure that public funding flowed freely to their war machines, making huge profits for the manufacturers. Fans the fires of racist hatred.... This has always happened. Divide and Conquer is one way governments maintain, or even strengthen their control. For example, as Michael Morre's video highlighted, at a point when actual crime figures were dropping, tv covrage increased by over 600%. The result was a large amount of the population became afraid, particularly of black people, since the increased coverage focused primarily on black people committing crimes. Such examples of fanning the flames of racist hatred are obvious is you realise it's the media who spread it. Another example, in the UK, one of the Royal Princes went to a fancy dress party dressed in a Nazi uniform. Who was offended? No-one at the party, but after a national newspaper published pictures, suddenly millions of people were outraged! No pictures, no offence. But if you look deeper into the chairman/director of the Newspaper concerned, you'll find someone with very close ties to government, as you would indeed with the weapons manufacturers. Just guess who profits when you build em back up... Halliburton. Need I say more? But I will! This was probably the least subtle act by any government ever. Awarding Halliburton the rebuilding contract for Iraq. Even historically this didn't happen. There was always competition to compete for the contract (even if it was fixed already, but at least for show!). This time, Vice-President Dick Cheney's government, awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to the company he was CEO of until 2000, and he is still receiving 'deferred compensation' from Halliburton. And am I allowed to mention World War 2? With the Germans all but defeated, the Allies mounted bombing campaigns, destroying cities and towns throughout German, Dresden being one such example. Defenders of the policy would argue their point, and back it up with arguments that they had to do it to win the war completely. They may have a point. But another point to look at is, who rebuilt Germany? Which companies were awarded the rebuilding contracts? Sharing the spoils with Russia, the country was split in 2, with the West Germany being promarily rebuilt by US and UK based companies, all of whom had close ties to their respective governments. Stocked with kids from slums..... Don't need to explain that do I? Forget your demonstrations, kids today sit on their ass. Just a six-pack and you're happy.... Playing videos games, watching tv, guitar hero, Wii, cd's, ipods, beer, drugs, basically anything that will distract and entertain people whilst our governments do what they want, and lie to us about it. At least in the 60's and 70's there were huge demonstrations against the Vietnam War (Read all of above!). And whilst there have been some large ones against Iraq and Afghanistan (Not forgetting who controls the tv coverage of these demonstrations), generally, most people have just accepted it, or can't be bothered, even though we know about the lies we were told, 45 minute deployment of Weapons, WMDs etc. Things haven't got any better since this song was written. They've got worse, much worse. I just hope that Obama gets in or things will continue, or even escalate (Iran, North Korea?). Vote Obama!!
    Hero Sheemaon October 08, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    No Matter what anybody tells me to do FUCK THEM Im not going to fight in some bullshit war of somebody elses.......shit Jean Cretien or Bush wouldnt fight for me if I started a war.......People arent disposable commodities and its stupid that we are thought of like that by our military....
    Skankin'InThePiton July 25, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    This song made me think of when Bush said "we" were going to war with Afgahnastan or whatever. . .I'm 19 so I thought " Oh shit if this gets big enough I might get drafted" which would piss me off, such bullshit that they would make someone fight for their beliefs, even if the soldiers belief is different. Plus it pisses me off that so many people are like "Kill anything with a turban!"
    meatspoonon July 12, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    I agree with the other reviewers here. This song definitely does relate to how I feel about the whole afghanistan thing that's going on right now.
    Grunger83on August 19, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    thats y i luv my country, costa rica, u dont have a fuckin army, i dont have to worry bout those things, armies r just a waste of money, fuck armies!!!
    ContrAdiccioNon September 04, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    I actually quoted from this song on a recent open-topic English essay i wrote about George Bush and 9-11. It was basically about how the Bush administration was actually behind 9-11. Quoted part: "The economy is looking bad lets start another war" :) i did pretty good on the essay too... And actually now i think about it, my teacher a couple of days ago said something along the lines of "So is it the big corporations who run the world" This song fits well with "Kinky Sex Makes The World Go Round"
    MountainJewon March 04, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    one time, i saw this bumber sticker that said "licensed terrorist hunter" and that REALLY pissed me off. cuz, what kind of FUCK-UP gets that sticker? sum dumbass over-patriotic "i love my country" bullshit saying guy. but this song rox...so few ppl added comments tho.
    gabiroxon January 16, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    If you aren't proactive and don't take an interest as things are building up, it will come back to haunt you. A lot of kids won't care that there's a War until they're forced into one.
    Fauxpoeton March 01, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    Yeah this song makes loads of comments about corporations starting wars: "There's easy money, easy jobs Especially when you build the bombs That blow big cities off the map Just guess who profits when we build 'em back up?" "We make profits when we blow off their heads" "Yeah, what Big Business wants Big Business gets - It wants a war"
    benmuzzon June 03, 2005   Link

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