Standing There Reprise

This addition to "Standing There" came about during my college years... but I don't like it as well as the original.  And despite suggestions from many people to combine the two of them, I've never cared for the mash-ups, either.  So here's the reprise.

 

Standing there
Baking in a desert hell
Knowing each road-bump they hit
Might explode, their death-knell
 
Still they keep fighting, still they keep dying
Trying to set people free
While we keep whining, politicizing,
Continuing to bellyache
 
What right do we have to put them on trial
To give their sacrifices only denial
To say it’s a pity, a waste, and a shame
That they keep on fighting, they must be insane
 
But have we forgotten how we all felt
Not to have the same rights as everyone else
Was it so long ago we fought for Civil Rights
That we no longer care to be equal in the law’s sight
 
The end of the war should only come
When the rights of a stranger are as dear as our own
So instead of whining about all the costs
We should be helping the to right the wrongs

With those in Iraq
With those in Darfur
With those in Sudan
And Afghanistan
 
Our soldiers are still standing there
Thank them and thank God.