Lives In The Balance Lyrics - Browne Jackson

I've been waiting for something to happen 

For a week or a month or a year 

With the blood in the ink of the headlines 

And the sound of the crowd in my ear 

You might ask what it takes to remember 

When you know that you've seen it before 

Where a government lies to a people 

And a country is drifting to war 

There's a shadow on the faces 

Of the men who send the guns 

To the wars that are fought in places 

Where their business interests run 

On the radio talk shows and TV 

You hear one thing again and again 

How the USA stands for freedom 

And we come to the aid of a friend 

But who are the ones that we call our friends 

These governments killing their own 

Or the people who finally can't take anymore 

And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone 

And there are lives in the balance 

There are people under fire 

There are children at the cannons 

And there is blood on the wire 

There's a shadow on the faces 

Of the men who fan the flames 

Of the wars that are fought in places 

Where we can't even say the names 

They sell us the president the same way 

They sell us our clothes and our cars 

They sell us everything from youth to religion 

The same time they sell us our wars 

I want to know who the men in the shadows are 

I want to hear somebody asking them why 

They can't be counted on to tell us 

Who our enemies are 

But they're never the ones to fight or to die 

And there are lives in the balance 

There are people under fire 

There are children at the cannons 

And there is blood on the wire