A Battle Hymn for Children

Actually I was wrong I mixed your lyrics and my correction- The correct line is :

Just like the billboard sign, "This is God's country"

A couple lines I couldn't understand. But this is obviously about how kids growing up with violent videos games about war and later in life join the army only to find out it's nothing like the video games.

Great Song!

It says "Desipite the billboard signs, "This is God's country..."

I cannot wait to purchase this album!

This is so far my favorite song off the new CD. I think the meaning is pretty straight forward. Kids growing up with violence in violent times and the crazy kind of logic people use to fool them into believing what is wrong is right.

In the Name Of Peace We Make War.

I almost feel like this is a b-side to "Violent" on Danse Macabre, or at least that it stems from the same vain.

Looking to people who are supposed to have answers, only to find out they don't. It breeds pure ambivalence toward our country.

I'd also like to throw out that, since their other three albums had album-spanning themes, i.e. Sex with blank-wave arcade, Death with Danse Macabre, and Life/Creation with Wet from Birth, that this one is the Future.

I hope this song doesn't get criticized too much for possibly being one of their most politically driven/straightforward songs. It's a great song though, definitely a great album closer.

I liked what Seahighster said, about looking to people, expecting them to have answers, them leading you astray and just breeding "pure ambivalence towards our country." I'm not a big American spirit kind of person, so, needless to say, I agree with the last verse immensely.

The switching of names that the narrator refers to each verse allows for the idea that no one has the real answers to shine through: not the teachers, the army sergeants, or the preachers. I love the fact that the preachers don't have the answers either, since the church these days is so corrupt. Ironically, the people designated to lead us in battle, to serve "God's country" have no idea why they're even there.

What baffles me most if what gave the USA the right to think that WE are God's country, when there are over 120 countries throughout the world. I'm not looking to get into any heated debates, though. Just wanted to make that little point and move on.

The line "We have violent games on pause at home" is perhaps one of the most striking in the whole song, filled with double meaning as well. Children/the rest of the world can learn about violence through their mass-produced, mind-driveling video games at home and less people would have to be killed in the process of that learning. But at the same time, should we be learning of violence in any kind of way like that, especially being given "guns for toys". That's how the USA really runs things: make the enemies scared by making them think we're really strong and ready - put this gun in your hand and stand up straight. Not the way to go about things, really.

I like how you can read the line "If they're both the same god, then the battle's over/details" in two ways. The first is reading "Details" as the narrator's dismissal of the battle, plagued by nonchalance and disregard, or as the end of the sentence before it, that the battle itself is over nothing but trivial details, not larger matters that were supposedly what brought us into battle in the first place.

Then in the name of peace we make war. The USA's real motive: make war when it needn't be made, or isn't expected. That'll show 'em. Yeah...sure.

"in the name of peace, we make war"

i really love this line. i am not a politcal person, and i realize that this song is probably not intended to be as metaphorical in the way that i am interpreting it, but really, can you have any kind of peace without making war? the conservatives want peace too, people tend to forget that, but their way of pursuing that peace is by declaring war -- which blatantly seems contradictory. but when you set out to pursue any kind of peace -- whether it be politcal, personal, in a relationship, what have you -- you are going to have to do some damage to get there. you are going to have to tear down what was hindering the peace before, and tearing anything down is a war of sorts. i don't think that you can have peace without war, and i don't think that you can have war without a desire for peace. they go hand-in-hand unexpectedly, yet familiarly, the way that love and hate go together. it's like a yin and yang.

**vein

Actually, I think that in the second to last line, 'prefer' is actually 'roots for',so that the line is ' If it's true that God roots for the USA, then is every bomb we drop in God's name? That's what it sounds like, anyway.

Actually, I think that in the second to last line, 'prefer' is actually 'roots for',so that the line is ' If it's true that God roots for the USA, then is every bomb we drop in God's name? That's what it sounds like, anyway.