It's possible to write an anti-war song without being a flaky, flower-tossing idealist. Does anyone else remember the now-defunct Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, led by ex-Beatnigs Michael Franti and Rono Tse? (Franti's around still, and you can check out his brilliant website at:
http://www.spearheadvibrations.com

I still think DHH is one of the very best bands to come out of the 90s.
I'm listening to their disc (Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury) again right now - particularly to one track I really loved when this record came out. I was in college during the Gulf War, and I hadn't heard too many people singing or rapping about it. It's fucking amazing.
The song is so moving and powerful that I almost can't describe it. It's called 'The Winter of the Long Hot Summer', and both the music and lyrics are just incredible.:

 

The Winter of the Long Hot Summer
It all seemed so idiotic, all the accusations of unpatriotic
The fall we'll always remember, capitulating silence, election November
Before the winter of the long hot summer
Somewhere in the desert we raised the oil pressure
And waited for the weather to get much better
For the new wind to blow in the storm
We tried to remember the history in the region
The French Foreign Legion, Imperialism, Peter O'Toole, and hate the Ayatollah
Were all we learned in school
Not that we gave Hussein five billion
Not of our new bed partner, the Syrian
And of course no mention of the Palestine situation
It was amazing how they steamrolled, they said 80% approval
But there was no one that I knew polled
No one had a reason for being in the Gulf
We waited for Congress to speak up, illegal build up, but no one would wake up
Our representatives were Milli Vanillis for corporate Dallas Cowboy Beverly Hillbillies
With perfect timing, the politicians rhyming their sentiments so nicely
Oil, gold, and sand, my sediments precisely...
We regretfully support the lunacy.
I'm afraid there is no time for more scrutiny, National unity, preserve our community
Teflon election opportunities were in profundant abundance
On January 2nd, the Bush administration announced a recession had stricken the nation
THE HIGHEST QUARTERLY EARNINGS IN TEN YEARS WERE POSTED BY CHEVRON
Meanwhile a budget was placed in our hands, as the deadline in the sand came to an end
So much for the peace dividend
One billion a day is what we spent and our grandchildren will pay for it 'til the end
When schools are unfunded and kids don't get their diplomas
They get used for gun boat diplomacy, disproportionately black or brown, we see
Bullet catchers for the slave master
Then the conservatives called up reservists to active service, left families nervous
But more importantly broke nine hundred a month
But the check came late, army red tape, you see, this golden opportunity
We watched the tube and read the newspaper
The propaganda of the gas-masked raper was the proper slander to whip up the hatred
The stage was lit and the lights were all faded
The pilots in night vision goggles Kuwaited and generals masturbated 'til the 15th
Two days later they invaded
Not a single TV station expressed dissension or hardly made mention
To the censorship of information from our kindler and gentler nation
Blinder and mentler retardation
DISORIENTATION
The pilots said their bombs lit Baghdad like a Christmas tree
It was the Christian thing to do, you see
They didn't mention any casualties, no distinction between the real and the proxy
Only football analogies
We saw the bomb hole, we watched the Super Bowl
We saw the scud missle, we watched Bud commercials
We saw the yellow ribbons, saw pilots in prison
We never saw films of the dead...at eleven
Angela Davis addressed the spectators and shouting above a rumbling generator said
If they insist on bringing this down, then let's shut the whole country down
Marching through the downtown, a hundred thousand became participants
And we heard the drums of millions off in the distance, rushing through the cities
Some of them did things that weren't so pretty
Most were there for primal scream therapy
News men concentrated on the negative, liked the jingoists more
Peaceful protesters ended up on the cutting room floor - Nintendo casualties of the ratings war
More bombs dropped than in World War II or in both Asian invasions
New World Order persuasion
Business as usual for our nation
Could you imagine a hundred fifty thousand dead
The City of Stockton, coffins locked in when we clocked in...not to mention civilians
The loss of life on both sides pushed the limits of resilience
The scent of blood in our nostrils, fuel of the fossil, land of apostle
The blackness that covered the sky was not the only thing that brought a tear to the eye
Or the taste of anger to the tongues of those too young to remember Vietnam
Is heroin better in a veteran's mind than the memory of the dying laying in a line
Is it the smell or the shadows, heaving and weeping, that keeps the soldier from sleeping
As he sings the orphan's lullaby
When the soldiers put down their bayonets, the strings are chained to the marionettes
Emir of Kuwait gets back in his jet
We replace the dead with new cadets
Will we hate those who did the shelling, or will we hate those who weren't willing to do the killing
When the leaders of the bald eagles come home to roost
Will we sing a song of praise and indebtedness for our deliverance from evil
Or will we sing a song of sadness for the dreaded debt this mess delivered us people...