The lyrics were an attempt to make a statement on the Lebanese civil war which had been exacerbated by the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1982. In a television interview, band member Philip Adrian Wright commented that Oakey's politically-charged lyrics were written specifically about the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Singer Susan Ann Sulley said of the song that the band "wanted to speak up for the little people" and say something about the situation in Lebanon at the time, and that the band was not trying to be political for the sake of it. The band were criticised at the time for being banal and "out of their depth", but in a retrospective review, AllMusic journalist Andy Kellman wrote that the song "looks atrocious on paper but sounds fantastic".