BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
Cedars is a song written from the perspective of a US soldier serving in Iraq, right? While it could be said that some US military personel are from underprivileged backgrounds, there was a time when U2 wrote songs from the perspective of the colonised, not the colonists (e.g., Bullet the Blue Sky, Mothers of the Disappeared). And unfortunately in the Middle East, the US is the colonist/imperialist, as I think you would agree, as I'm pretty sure based on your political perspective from your FYM posts you were not in favour of the invastion. Your point would make more sense if Cedars was written from the point of view of an Iraqi civilian - but, judging from the lyrics, it is not.
I am not very familiar with the others songs you mentioned. I will try to check them out.
Cedars is actually about a war correspondent not a soldier... and it sounds like a correspondent that doesn't really want to be there.
You aren't familiar with the other songs? How do you know Cedars and not the others from that album?