THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

[Zlatko Waterman]

On the eve of the leveling and "cleansing" of Fallujah, a little friendly reminder from Donovan Leitch. As timely now as when it was written almost forty years ago:


UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

(Donovan)

He's five foot two
And he's six feet four
He fights with missiles
And with spears
He's all of thirty one
And he's only seventeen
He's been a soldier
For a thousand years

He's a Catholic, a Hindu
An atheist, a Jain
A Buddist and a Baptist and a Jew
And he knows he shouldn't kill
And he knows he always will
Kill you for me, my friend
And me for you

And he's fighting for Canada
He's fighting for France
He's fighting for the U.S.A.
And he's fighting for the Russians
And he's fighting for Japan
And he thinks we'll put
And end to war this way

And he's fighting for democracy
He's fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
Who's to live and who's to die
And he never see the writing on the wall

But without him how would Hitler
Have condemned him at ...
Without him
Caesar would've stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war
And without him
All this killing can't go on

He's the universal soldier
And he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from here and there
And you and me
And brothers can't you see
This is not the way
We put the end to war

[Doreen Peri]

I used to play this tune on the guitar and sing it at coffeehouses.

[jimboloco]

Shocking and Awful: Erasing Memory: The Cultural Destruction of Iraq
http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/c ... nt_id=1002

[Lightning Rod]

I hate to correct a professor, Z

but Universal Soldier was written by

Buffy Sainte-Marie

[Zlatko Waterman]

And here is a "creative-native" web site to confirm your correction:

http://www.creative-native.com/lyrics/univelyr.htm


In the basement of The Purple Onion, no less, so she claims.

The version I clipped from set up Donovan as the songwriter.

I DID like her version better.

Something's happening to my mind (he said from the hindbrain)-- it must have been that last six pack of Dos Equis back in 1969 . . .


Have a great birthday, Clay.


Norman