(What we've got here is failure to communicate)
(Some men, you just can't reach)
(So, you get what we had here, last week)
(Which is the way he wants it)
(Well, he gets it)
(And I don't like it any more than you men)

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before
Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands, time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband when they shot the man
Who said, "Peace could last forever"?
And in my first memories, they shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall in D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom when it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin' for their promised land and

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich, while it buries the poor
You're power-hungry, sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh?
I don't need your civil war
Ooh, no, no, no, no, no, no

Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still, the wars go on, as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
And all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

(We practice selective annihilation)
(Of mayors and government officials)
(For example, to create a vacuum)
(Then we fill that vacuum)
(As popular war advances)
(Peace is closer)

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich, while it buries the poor
You're power-hungry, sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh?
I don't need your civil war
No no no no no no no no no no no no
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
You're power-hungry, sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh?
I don't need your civil war
No no no no no no no no no no no no
I don't need one more war

Ooh, I don't need one more war
No no no, no whoa, no whoa

What's so civil 'bout war anyway?


Lyrics submitted by mike, edited by DeanGuitars

Civil War Lyrics as written by Saul Hudson W. Axl Rose

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Civil War song meanings
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  • +18
    General Comment

    My take on this song is that while the rich use wars to make themselves richer, the victims are those sent out to die. They are often led to believe that they are on a holy crusade, when all they are really doing is fighting to allow those in power to become more powerful. Their cause is never realized, and in the end, they die for nothing.

    nemisis58on September 28, 2002   Link

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