In style, this is a reggae song. I’ve not played a lot of reggae, not since I was in a band with a bass player from Jamaica who loved reggae and we worked some of it into our sets.

In my mind, reggae is associated with resistance to oppression. I’m not a reggae artist nor can I claim to be the oppressed poor. And I don’t want to feel as though I am appropriating somebody else’s music.

Reggae, however, so perfectly fits the content of what I was trying to convey through the lyrics, that it is the path I chose to take.

I suppose some wars are defensive, reactions to invasion by others. I’m not necessarily condemning those kinds of resistance. But for the tyrants who choose war to take others’ property and assets or to unify their extreme base around antagonism toward an external enemy, this is entirely tragic. It never works in the long run. The tyrants always fall. In the process of all this, countless lives are lost and ruined and can echo through many generations.

It doesn’t matter whose side you’re on.

The song is available on all streaming services, and if you do not have a music service, you can access the song on YouTube: https://youtu.be/V-ApynSPZ8Q

If you would like to check out the lyrics: http://craigjhansen.com/war-of-choice/