For Veteran's Day, Big Country expressed it best in these lyrics...

[arbusto_baboso]

from their song Come Back to Me:

The day they had a party
Right out in the street
Flags and flowers and singing
For the homecome hero's treat

I sat in the kitchen
Without a fire on the range
I knew this house had lost the cause
To ever make me warm again

Come back to me
Days are all to long
Come back to me
You never should have gone
I was so young and full of pride
And you were wild and strong
I never knew how weak I was

I watched them gather round him
When he stepped down from the car
While tears fell on my cigarette
He handed out cigars

I have your child inside me
But you will never know
I never will forget you
While I watch that child grow

Come back to me
Days are all to long
Come back to me
You never should have gone
I was so young and full of pride
And you were wild and strong
I never knew how weak I was

I was so young and full of pride
(I never, I never, I never.)

I will always be here
Fading by the day
I will wash the bloody hands
And cast the bowl away

As the years hang on me
You will always be young
And one day I will lie down
Where the rose was flung

Come back to me
Days are all to long
Come back to me
You never should have gone
I was so young and full of pride
And you were wild and strong
I never knew how weak I was

[Arugula Latte]

1. Here's another good one: "In Dulce Decorum" by The Damned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXdHddSiLoI

Dear mother how I will write this line
When I know I'm counting time
I'm tired and I'm scared
I'm waiting and death's my friend

To say in God we trust not for this
Oh the death and glory boys not for this

Dear beloved try to write to you
Through the senseless deaths of a million troops
I'm waiting my time is near
As my tears wash away my years

To say in God we trust not for this
Oh the death and glory boys not for this

Where I walk where I see
The haunting flares where my friends bleed
I see the face of the enemy
Of a man or boy who is just like me

Now you're not there
All the tears we bled
Cut through like winters rain
Can't you feel the pain

And if I could ever sleep again
I know till the end of time I'd hear
Their screams of pain

Dulce dulce decorum
Dulce dulce decorum
Dulce
Dear mother I'll write to you