He's five foot two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty one, and he's only seventeen,
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
And he knows he shouldn't kill
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me, my friend, and me for you.

And he's fighting for democracy, he's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone.
He's the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the universal soldier, and he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you and me,
And brothers, can't you see,
This is not the way we'll put the end to war.