Yesterday First Aid Kit's cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie's 'Universal Soldier' drifted out over the FBi airwaves. The song is about one soldier, who is basically every soldier. He is seventeen and thirty-one, he is French, Russian and Japanese, he is Catholic and Muslim and Jewish, and he's fighting for peace.

This morning, Defence Minister Stephen Smith announced that another Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. That brings the total number of Australian casualties in Afghanistan to 25. It is estimated that between 14 000 and 34 000 Afghan civilians have been killed since the start of the war. We still need protest songs.