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

And theres a shadow on the faces

Of the men who send the guns

To the wars that are fought in places

Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the t v

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 any more

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

There are lives in the balance

There are people under fire

There are children at the cannons

And there is blood on the wire

And there is blood on the wire

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

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 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

There is blood on the wire

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

I want to know who the men in the shadows are

I want to hear somebody asking them why

They can 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

There is blood on the wire

There is blood on the wire

There is