"White as Snow" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the ninth track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. It was written from the perspective of a dying soldier serving in Afghanistan, and lasts the length of time it takes him to die. The track is based on the hymn "Veni, veni Emmanuel", and is the only political song on the album.

U2 were asked by Jim Sheridan to write a song for his 2009 film Brothers. Bono noted that Sheridan wanted a "complex song for a complex character" and so the band wrote two songs: "Winter" and "White as Snow". While "Winter" is a "more universal song about the experience of the armed forces in Afghanistan", "White as Snow" focuses more on the relationship between the Cahill brothers. The band preferred "Winter" for the film, but as they also wanted to include the track on No Line on the Horizon they struggled to complete it in time for the film's planned release date. "White as Snow" was selected to be used in its place, though the push back of the film's release date meant that the band could finish "Winter" and it was ultimately used instead.

In an interview with The Guardian, lead singer Bono revealed that he became tired of writing in the first-person, noting that "I'd just worn myself out as a subject matter"; as a result he created several characters, including a traffic cop, a drug addict, and a soldier serving in Afghanistan. The soldier's character appears in "White as Snow", which focuses on the soldier's last thoughts as he dies from the wounds caused by an improvised explosive device. Bono came up with the idea after reading Pincher Martin, written by William Golding.

...
Wikipedia