War Is Good Business

War Is Good Business

The contract’s in the billions and the dividend’s prepaid,
the boardroom’s on its feet, they toast another day,
the quarterly report confirms the surge in war demand,
for the products that they manufacture for the war command.

The lobbyist is working and the senator’s on board,
the funding for the mission carries on without accord,
the factory in the district keeps three thousand on the dole,
and the factory makes the weapons and it keeps them whole.

War is good business, war is good business,
the balance sheet is healthy and the projections hold,
war is good business, follow the money,
trace the policy decisions back and see what you’re told,
war is good business, it’s always been that way,
the men who profit from the killing never have to pay,
war is good business, the oldest kind of deal,
they sell the ordnance to both sides and let the market heal.

I’m not some bitter cynic but the pattern’s plain to see,
the wars that stretch on longest have a profit motive in their fee,
and the ones that end overnight had no stakeholder in sight,
to keep the conflict engine churning through the endless night.

So count the body bags against the dividend you reap,
ask the shareholders if their quarterly’s yours to keep,
war is good business, they’ve always known this fact,
just nobody says it plainly and that’s exactly the contract.

The headlines talk of freedom but the footnotes tell the truth,
a defense contractor’s stock is up while someone’s hammering a roof,
the weapons makers’ cocktail parties spill right past the glass,
while diplomats discuss peace and shuffle through the pass.