Review: ‘Forever Wars’ by Mistahi
The Canada-based Marxist Leninist singer-songwriter, Mistahi Corkill, released his latest song and corresponding music video ‘Forever Wars’ on 25 March (available on YouTube). He sent the track to FRFI for review. Mistahi dedicates this new track to ‘the anti-imperialist war movement in all countries.’
This anti-imperialist song comes at a crucial time for socialists everywhere due to the recent and continued attacks across the globe, most prominently in the Middle East. The song has a country music sound to it and is a powerful piece in exposing US imperialism and the pain it inflicts.
It opens with a clip from this year in the US: masked police officers yell ‘Get him!’ as they pursue a man on a bicycle, highlighting the recent and ramped attacks on migrants and people of colour. Then an acoustic guitar riff begins, followed by singing and clips from Iran 2026 with fighter jets and missiles. More scenes of imperialist intervention follow: Lebanon 2026, Venezuela 2025, the Palestine genocide, Syria/Lybia 2011, over two decades in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and more attacks on Africa, Asia and Latin America from 1945 to the present.
These clips show how rotten US imperialism is, its global military intervention and massacring. They include bombings, explosions, flattened countries, army helicopters, death and destruction.
The rawness of the vocals and acoustic guitar signify the bombardment of the global south and the detriment caused. Halfway through, the addition of trumpets, drums and tambourines adds to the sentiment and power of the song. These videos are enhanced with the lyrics ‘Wreckage and pain’, ‘Cold hands of greed’, and most notably the chorus, ‘There’s blood in the oil’ is extremely powerful with the US intervention in Iran and Venezuela, all for oil and control, using ‘democracy’ or drugs as an excuse to attack.
The video ends with the following text: ‘This video shows a fraction of US empire war crimes. Organise for an anti-war government’, over a time-lapsed video of a protest in London in 2026 against the war on Iran, including Palestinian, Cuban and Irish flags (which FRFI joined marching alongside the Anti-Fascist International). The music fades into audio from the protest – ‘From the belly of the beast, hands off the Middle East.’
Despite Mistahi’s focus on US imperialism, it is vital that here in Britain we focus on British imperialism. In most of the military interventions in the video, the racist, war mongering, British state was also involved: using Agent Orange before the US on Malaya (now Malaysia) in the 1950s, giving the green light for its use; the establishment of, continued political and financial support provided, and the production of arms for Israel; in the recent attacks on Iran, Britain allowed the US to use its bases; as well as British banks continuing to block transactions connected with socialist Cuba.
It is more important than ever to strike Imperialism, wherever you are, with protests, music, marches, and demonstrations. For us here in Britain, we must organise and get on the streets, as Mistahi calls for in the video, to combat US, British and western imperialism.
Scarlett Greene
