The art of war The broad brushstrokes of conflict paint a masterpiece of devastation That bleeds and burns and rips the canvas Leaving scars across the scorched earth Horror and carnage as beauty Peace as the ultimate obscenity The downfall of all we cherish Brought about by the viral spread of freedom Awash in the fetid stench of decadence Belligerence and arrogance masked as benevolence Empires rise and fall but never last Corrupted to their core Their devious machinations hasten the fall of reason Imperialistic dreams of conquest Doomed to failure, doomed to repeat the past Deceased and decomposed, the distrust of our leaders The remnants of a skeptical populace replaced with obedience When men become gods to those whose loyalty erases all fault One hand washes the blood off the other The blood of the innocent spilled in the name of this perversion of liberty Where is the outrage? Our revolution? Why do these crimes go unpunished? Carving up the earth with impunity and feasting on the spoils Why? Asking why is treason, while the jingoistic answer comes so easily All things have their end Witness the end of dominion When power rests on the edge of a sword It's nothing more than sowing the seeds of violence and resentment Waging a war on ideology, mired in futility