"Civil War" is a song by the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, which originally appeared on the 1990 album Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, a fundraising compilation for Romanian orphans. It is a protest song about war, that amongst other things says that a civil war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor". Notably, the United States was involved in no major military operations at the time of its recording, so it is mostly thought of as a tribute of sorts to 1960s anti-Vietnam War protest songs. It was written by Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan.Slash states that the song was an instrumental he had written right before the band left for its Appetite for Destruction Japan tour. Axl wrote lyrics and it was worked into a proper song at a sound check in Melbourne, Australia.Guns N' Roses performed the song at Farm Aid IV on April 7, 1990. This performance was televised.It is the first track on Use Your Illusion II, appears on the compilation Use Your Illusion, and on Guns N'...