I've read through the entire thread but no-one's mentioned a great song by the Belgian/French singersongwriter Jacques Brel, called La Colombe. Judy Collins did a great version of it in the 1960s. It tells of the conscripts boarding a train to go off to fight (presumably in Algeria) and is written from the poihnt of view of one of the soldiers asking 'Why?'. The last verse, from memory (English version):

And why your face undone
With jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years
All peace I've ever known?
And why these days ahead
When I must let you cry
And live prepared to die
As if our love were dead?

Nous n'irons plus aux bois.
La colombe est blesse.
Nous n'irons plus aux bois,
Nous allons la tuer


The dove has torn a wing
But no more songs of love
We are not here to sing
We're here to kill the dove