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Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland

e-mail: thefantompowa@fantompowa.org

 

This was a song recorded originally in 1992 by Eric B. & Rakim; two of original hip-hop's greatest artists; sometimes art reads the future better than science.

We featured it when the US/K launched it's war in Afghanistan, then Iraq; and it gets truer day by day . . .

What's done in our name 'over there' will always return . . human tragedy has no statute of limitations.

Eric B. & Rakim

Casualties of War (1992)

 

 

Casualties of War! Casualties of war;

as I approach the barricade

Where's the enemy? Who do I invade?

Bullets of Teflon, bulletproof vest rip

Tear ya outta ya frame with a bag full of clips

Cause I got a family that waits for my return

To get back home is my main concern

I'ma get back to New York in one piece

but I'm bent in the sand that is hot as the city streets

Sky lights up like fireworks blind me

Bullets, whistlin over my head remind me...

President Bush said attack

Flashback to Nam, I might not make it back

Missile hits the area, screams

wake me up from a war of dreams,

. . . heat up the M-16

Basic training, trained for torture

Take no prisoners, and I just caught ya

Addicted to murder, send more bodybags

They can't identify em, leave the nametags

I get a rush when I see blood, dead bodies on the floor

CASUALTIES OF WAR! (4X)

Day divides the night and night divides the day

It's all hard work and no play

More than combat, it's far beyond that

Cause I got a kill or be killed kind of attack

Area's mapped out, there'll be no,Stratego

Me and my platoon make a boom wherever we go

But what are we here for? Who's on the other side of the wall?

Somebody give the President a call

But I hear warfare scream through the air

Back to the battlegrounds, it's war they declare

A Desert Storm: let's see who reigns supreme

Something like Monopoly: a government scheme

Go to the Army, be all you can be

Another dead soldier? Hell no, not me

So I start letting off ammunition in every direction

Allah is my only protection

But wait a minute, Saddam Hussein prays the same

and this is Asia, from where I came

I'm on the wrong side, so change the target

Shooting at the general; and where's the sergeant?

Blame it on John Hardy Hawkins for bringing me to America

Now it's mass hysteria

I get a rush when I see blood, dead bodies on the floor

CASUALTIES OF WAR! (4X)

The war is over, for now at least

Just because they lost it don't mean it's peace

It's a long way home, it's a lot to think about

Whole generation, left in doubt

Innocent families killed in the midst

It'll be more dead people after this

So I'm glad to be alive and walkin

Half of my platoon came home in coffins

Except the general, buried in the Storm

in bits and pieces no need to look for em

I played it slick and got away with it

Rigged it up so they would think they did it

Now I'm home on reserves

and you can bet when THEY call,

I'm going AWOL

Cause it ain't no way I'm going back to war

when I don't know who or what I'm fighting for

So I wait for terrorists to attack

Every time a truck backfires I fire back

I look for shelter when a plane is over me

Remember Pearl Harbor? New York could be over,

G Kamikaze, strapped with bombs

No peace in the East, they want revenge for Saddam

Did I hear gunshots, or thunder?

No time to wonder, somebody's going under

Put on my fatigues and my camoflouge

Take control, cause I'm in charge

When I snapped out of it, it was blood, dead bodies on the floor

CASUALTIES OF WAR!

CASUALTIES OF WAR!

CASUALTIES OF WAR!

CASUALTIES OF WAR!

 

Casualties of War - MCA 1992 (54492) Casualties of War (Militant Remix) Casualties of War (Soulpower Remix) Casualties of War (Extended Club Camouflage Version) Casualties of War (Instrumental) Casualties of War/Relax With Pep - MCA 1992 (2384) Casualties of War Relax With Pep Casualties of War - MCA 1992 (2386) Casualties of War (Militant Remix) Casualties of War (Moor Militant Mix) Casualties of War (Extended Club Camouflage Version) Casualties of War (Radical Radio Edit) Casualties of War (Instrumental) Casualties of War (Dub Version) Casualties of War (Jazz Version)

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