I am the eternal soldier; I’m there when you need me
Fighting for your liberties down every century
Standing on the front-line, bleeding for your cause
Just a name on a stone, at which you never pause.

Yet all I ask is wages and three square meals a day
To lay my life upon the line, to live in harms way,
But it’s the same old story, when your victory is won
Then I’m just an embarrassment, with a loaded gun.

And the debt is soon forgotten, when the nightmares come to call
When each night I hear my best friend scream and watch my comrades fall,
But I’m told to snap out of it and I’m told, warriors don’t cry
And I’m left to drink myself to death on a cold street to die.

Well I march on your decision, anywhere in this wide world
In places where our flag had no right to be unfurled,
And I’m not asking for riches, I want nothing for free
The only thing I’m asking for, is a measure of dignity.

Cos’ I halted the Armada, stood my ground at Marston Moor
I was in the line at Minden and I heard the Zulu roar,
I was in the square at Waterloo and I fought the fearless Boers
I was gassed in the trenches of the war to end all wars,
I piloted a Spitfire, stormed the beach at Normandy
Fought hard in Korea and I yomped to Port Stanley,
I was bombed to hell in Basra, under fire in Kabul
I am a deadly exocet, I’m just a politician’s tool