System of a Down: War? Meaning

Song Released: 1998

War? Lyrics

Dark is the light,
The man you fight,
With all your prayers, incantations,
Running away, a trivial day,
Of judgment and deliverance,
To whom was sold, this bounty soul,
A gentile or a priest ?
Who victored over, the seljuks,
When the holy...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   justin

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   Jun 10th 2006 !⃝

   The song is generally thought to be about mankind fighting wars for wealth and other material gains throughout the centuries while coming up with great reasons for it; one of the first reasons given for such wars was that God commanded the war. As this reason changed to fighting communism and eventually terrorism, the war was still being fought for material gain and global domination.
2. anonymous

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   May 13th 2018 !⃝

   Well “A Heathan” is reference to the oldest Religion Recorded. Before Christianainty , There was the Araen Religion Austitri “ Heathan” is each members like “Brother” term. Although this religion was a White Religion it wasn’t a racist one it was whipped out my early Christians . It has just in recent years made a comeback. So I think after listening to that song for years and loving it. I don’t anymore . It now makes scence to me how soad was a mainstream rock band for years . They were promoting the call for the American Western White Civilzation Genocide . As well as the rise of the Muslim Brothers . Interesting
3. anonymous

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   May 23rd 2012 !⃝

   just notcied "international security, call of the righteous man, needs a reason to kill a man" --- Oil isn't a good enough reason to go to war but international security is. Bomb the shit out of your own towers and blame it on the other guys and you have the support of your nation.
4. anonymous

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   Jan 17th 2012 !⃝

   The song is about using religon to send people to war. I'm an atheist and i don't want to offence anybody, but i think religion is just a way to gain money. in the live version Serj says "God wants you to go to war (see first sentence)
5. anonymous

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   Mar 14th 2011 !⃝

   I don't think its about antidisestablishmentarianism. google it and read what it means on wiki. Not something SoaD generally sings about.
6. anonymous

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   May 10th 2010 !⃝

   It's about the Muslims invading in the fourteen-hundreds. In the beginning they talk about Seljuks, who was a Turkish group that took over Muslim land. The rest of the song, I think, is about using god, or Allah as an excuse to go around killing people to take back your land.
7. anonymous

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   Apr 2nd 2010 !⃝

   This song is definetly about the crusades during the middle ages. The reference to the Seljuks is a big red flag. If you don't already know, the Seljuks were a group of Turks that the Crusaders fought against. The song also mentions the "Holy Land," which was what the crusaders were after.
8. Anonymity_is_great

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   Oct 13th 2009 !⃝

   I think that this song is about the fact that war through the ages has been only ever for one thing, material gain. Also I belive it explains how excuses have been made to wage war from "holy wars" like the crusades in the middle ages fought in the name of god to modern wars fought for reasons of "International security". For example Bush, although U.N. weapons inspectors didn't find a trace of any "weapons of mass destruction" he still invaded Iraq, directly disobeying a U.N. order. Technicaly Bush is a war crimial but no one wanted to take him to a U.N. war crimes council because they feared America's power. The whole Iraq war with the massacre of civilians through indescriminant bombing was only for control over Iraq's oil.
   Well thats it, sorry if I got off the topic a bit
9. anonymous

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   Feb 9th 2009 !⃝

   In answer to DisposableCartman.
   The Gulf War of 1991 might very well be the war they are referring to?
10. DisposableCartman

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    Aug 5th 2008 !⃝

    Most of you got it right. Except this isn't about the current War in Iraq, cuz' the album is from 1998. Anyway, it relates to the Armenian Genocide a lot, but Justin was obviously reading from the quote book above "War?":
    
    "We first fought the heathens in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change."
11. anonymous

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    Apr 23rd 2008 !⃝

    Seljuks, according to Wikipedia, expanded as far as Baghdad. This to me makes this song clearly about the Iraq war, and the framing of the Iraq war as a holy war against Islam (infidels). 'That lead the noble to the east to fight the heathens...' Noble = noble cause, also nobility or King Bush, aka King George. 'For you must enter a room to destroy it' we went into Iraq and it's now essentially decimated. 'Call of the righteous man' to be Christian is to support Bush. 'The reason he must attain' look at the Downing Street Memos where the intelligence was fixed around the policy. I could go on, but this is yet another example of SOADs beautiful use of metaphor and double entendre in its lyrics!
12. anonymous

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    Jul 11th 2007 !⃝

    Yes this song is about the Crusades in the 1400's.
13. im_right_on_this_one

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    Jun 6th 2007 !⃝

    To keep it short and simple, this song is about people questioning war. like, the whole thing that started anarchy, but don't get me wrong, this is my opinion

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. anonymous

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    Apr 26th 2007 !⃝

    I think he is talking about the Crusade and the Holy Wars of the Christians. They went east to fight the "heathens" muslims....They don't speak of this war anymore because they want to leave it behind....Today the same thing is happening with Muslims and we are all acting as if this hasn't happened in history.
15. willyson45

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    Dec 29th 2006 !⃝

    you know I read somewhere that this was about the crusades back in the 1400s with the protestants n stuff. you know "we will fight the heathens." "We will fight the non-believers."
    
    and everything else about the riches and everything is true about that period and time.
16. crackSmOkinAssDouche

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    Dec 28th 2006 !⃝

    yea I think their pretty much saying that its stupid when people have wars just because of religion and that maybe that's just an excuse....maybe they really go to war because they want the riches of the land

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