Bomb Them With Butter ©James Gordon 2001
I wrote this song after reading an e-mail posting from Kent Madin, an American living in Mongolia. He suggested a novel solution to the U.S's desire for retribution in Afghanistan. Eliminate the hunger, poverty and oppression in that region and you would lessen the resentment towards the United States and diminish the likelihood of terrorism. "Bomb Them With Butter", he wrote, and the song pretty much wrote itself after that. I had just received what can only be described as a 'hate e-mail' from an American fan who was upset by the plea for peace that I had sent to my mailing list. He accused me of 'diddling with my guitar' while "real men" like him were going to get the job done with guns.. I thought "I've got a guitar, he's got a gun: I wonder which would be the most effective instrument in the long run?"
You want retribution,
You need to take a stand-
Your anger has turned towards Afghanistan.
You want to use bombs, you want to use guns-
Will that appease the 5000 innocent ones?
We should
Bomb them with butter, with rice and with bread,
Bomb them with medicine, and clothing instead.
Kill them with kindness, compassion and care-
Let them drink from clean waters, not the well of despair.
Get them right where they'll expect it the least-
Bomb them with butter, attack them with peace
Hate and resentment, is all that they know-
Kept in darkness and fear, a drought where nothing can grow
To dig up the roots, we must get rid of the weeds.
Make their desert a garden, by sowing some seeds.
We should
Bomb them with butter, with rice and with bread,
Bomb them with medicine, and clothing instead.
Kill them with kindness, compassion and care-
Let them drink from clean waters, not the well of despair.
Get them right where they'll expect it the least-
Bomb them with butter, attack them with peace.
They live in terror, in hunger and thirst-
Let's fill up the bellies of their starving children first-
And feed them with knowledge, so they might see-
A way out of this cycle of brutality
Bomb them with butter, with rice and with bread,
Bomb them with medicine, and clothing instead.
Kill them with kindness, compassion and care-
Let them drink from clean waters, not the well of despair.
Get them right where they'll expect it the least-
Bomb them with butter, attack them with peace.