Here is my offering--a song as a prayer. This one was written for the first Gulf War, and I've always interpreted it as a song lamenting the ways we damage our troops by sending them out to kill other human beings they have no personal quarrel with...

WAR by Dougie Maclean

Our voice made silent
Our hands made still
But deep and violent wait the ones who
wait to kill
The desert's burning, their reasons pale
For there's no returning
with some golden holy grail

What have they done?
What have they done?
The blood will run to everyone
Oh what have they done?

Is it for freedom? Or is it for truth
That father's fall and all the young
men trade their youth?
Or are they moved by deception's hand
That rank and reckless scatters death
across the sand?

What have they done?
What have they done?
The blood will run to everyone
Oh what have they done?

Is it for freedom? Or is it for truth
That fathers fall and all those young
men trade their youth?
And the deserts burning, their faces pale
For there's no returning
with some golden holy grail

What have they done?
What have they done?
The blood will run to everyone
Oh what have they done?