[Intro]
This is a song about
It's about war, but it's about secret war
It's about the secret wars that my country has engaged in
But not so much a secret from anybody
As much as it's a secret from the people who pay for these wars
This is called "Lives in the Balance"

[Verse 1]
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

[Bridge]
And 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 interest runs

[Verse 2]
On the radio talk shows and the 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 (Who?)
These governments killing their own? (What you say)
Or the people who finally can't take any more (No)
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
[Chorus]
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons (There are)
And there is blood on the wire

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge]
And 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

[Verse 3]
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 (What you say)
I wanna know who the men in the shadows are
I wanna 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

[Chorus]
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons (There are)
And there is blood on the wire
[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 4]
I find it so strange and confusing
They take God out our lives day by day
But when tragedy strikes like 9/11
They call for the nation to pray
Now what should America pray for?
God to smite our enemies?
Or to heal the wounds of history
And to live with the world in peace?
Seek My face and turn from their wicked ways
Then will I hear (I will hear from heaven and heal their land)

[Chorus]
Lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
There are, there are, there are

[Outro]
Thank you