When they seek empire
Nations lose faith
When the cost of war
Is overwhelming
Athenians in Syracuse died to a man
Trying to raise the flag
Over a land that had no desire
To be one of those
Who bow to Athens
In Malaya the people who saw the fall
Of the British colonial regime
Made a choice to rise up
Against the empire
For independence
They were called terrorists
And rebels
In the land which they had been born
And the British were foreign
France had fought a war against oppressors
And then sought in Algeria
To make that land their dominion
All the lessons of fighting Fascism were lost
In the midst of a brutal war
The United States fought a people
To keep them from the specter of Communism
Despite the fact
That the Vietnamese hadn't had a choice
When the Japanese
Chinese
And French
Before the Americans
Sought to control their land
Such are the wars of Empire
When democracies die
For cynical reasons
Overreach
Suicide
