I wrote this 7 years ago. The tune is an old foc'sle shanty Utah Phillips used for his song TROOPERS LAMENT. He told me he learned the tune from Louis Killen. If somebody out there can tell me the name of the shanty I'd be much obliged.
Mark Ross

NO BLOOD FOR OIL
Words, Mark Ross. Tune, Troopers' Lament.

There's a man down in Washington who wants to start a war,
Wants to kill a hundred thousand like his daddy did before,
Send handsome sons and pretty daughters off to die on foreign soil,
He doesn't listen when we tell him that we won't trade blood for oil.

In the Middle East they're saying that there's oil beneath the sand,
Are a thousand dirty barrels worth the life of one young man?
Let the honest soul come forward who will now stand up and say,
That these actions they are justified, it is worth the price we'll pay.

When the Gulf War ended just a dozen years ago,
We forgot the old injunction, "You shall reap just what you sow."
Now there comes a generation who we've taught that might is right,
Is it any wonder that we're the ones they want to fight.

There are half a million children dead because we went to war,
And if the battle starts again there will be a million more,
The sound of grieving parents should make us feel ashamed,
Of all the things that we have done, and all in Freedom's name.

Back here in this country we're consumed by all our fears,
We are giving up the freedoms that we've had for all these years,
We turn neighbor against neighbor, turn our children into spies,
Our friends become our enemies, and it all is based on lies.

Can you hear the sound of people marching all across the world,
Half a hundred million with their flags of peace unfurled,
From the dampened streets of Portland to Madrid in sunny Spain,
Voices swelling up in protest, "We shall never kill again."