Songfacts®:

• Marvin Gaye sang "War is not the answer" in his 1971 classic "What's Going On." The metal band Five Finger Death Punch flip it on "War Is The Answer," the title track to their second album. It's meant to be provocative, taking the stance that war is sometimes necessary. The band are huge supporters of the American military; they've helped out in supporting vetarans and have often played for the troops, including a tour of Iraq in 2010.
• The band's guitarist Zoltan Bathory explained the song's creation to Metal Hammer: "The riff is something I had to take out from another song; it just didn't seem to work there, but I really liked it musically and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I ended up writing a whole new track around it – that happens quite a bit with me.
  
  In terms of the melody, I envisaged there being a big chorus, that kind of thing, but Ivan [Moody, vocals] had different ideas! When he's angry about something, he just can't go down the 'singing' route, he needs to lash out vocally, and there's no question that he really lives and breathes the emotions he's singing about. Several times during the recording of this one, we had to stop him hitting the wall because it was being picked up by the mic!"
• Bathory explained the song's title to Kerrang!: "War Is The Answer is basically a statement that for better or worse war is something that will never go away, be it on the battlefield or in our own everyday lives, but it's also a reminder that deep down very few things in life are about flowers and sunshine. There are a lot of people in the world who value their own happiness over the wellbeing of others, and this is basically a massive middle finger to those people."
• Bathory explained to Metal Hammer why the song's title was used to name the album as well: "It's a phrase we've had up our sleeve for some time, and I've been talking about it a lot in interviews. In fact, somebody just said to me: 'If war is the answer, then what is the question?', and I guess the answer to that is 'life'! Basically, you're fighting against something or other right from the start – fighting for survival with pretty much everything against you, and there are occasions when the only really appropriate response is to punch someone in the mouth! It's a pretty involved subject once you really start to think about it, and this record covers it all – the deeper meaning and of course the more shallow one too!"