Lyrics The Universal Soldier - Buffy Sainte-Marie

The Universal Soldier

He’s five foot two
and he’s six feet four,
he fights with missiles and with spears.
He’s all of thirty-one
and he’s only seventeen,
He’s been a soldier through a thousand years.
He’s a Catholic, a Hindu,
an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist, a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he’s fighting for Canada,
he’s fighting for France,
he’s fighting for the USA.
And he’s fighting for the Russains
and he’s fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.
And he’s fighting for democracy,
he’s fighting for the Reds,
he says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one who must decide,
who’s to live and who’s to die,
and he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him, how would Hitler
have condemned him at Dachau,
(note: There was a concentration camp, in german KZ, in 1945)
without him Caesar would have stood alone.
He’s the one who gives his body
as a weapon of the war,
and without him all this killing can’t go on.
He’s the universal soldier,
and he really is to blame,
his orders come from far away, no more.
They come from here and there and you and me
and brothers can’t you see,
this is not the way we put the end to war.