I never thought I’d come under attack but now the world has changed and there’s no goin’ back danger at my shoulder and it’s gainin’ fast questions I’m afraid of but I have to ask who are they and why do they hate us I was raised to believe in this American Dream all the greatness and glory, the way that it seemed how god was on our side and god doesn’t lie so why do all these innocent people have to die who are they and why do they hate us every color in the cloth has a history to tell ships across the ocean and the liberty bell heroes in the monuments I know them by name but now their granite jaws are shattered and their eyes are full of rain my neighbor she’s a foreigner I can’t pronounce her name when she talks about her homeland her face fills with pain she says she lost her children when the missiles hit I don’t know what to say so I just change the subject who are they and why do they hate us I see the TV news and they’re burnin’ my flag in some far away land like it’s just another rag the looks on their faces, they make me freeze how in the world did we make so many enemies who are they and why do they hate us they tell me there are reasons for unthinkable acts rage and retribution won’t bring anybody back justice is alive, so subtle and sublime I’d like to believe them but were running out of time I never paid much attention, guess I shoulda known every far away country is somebody’s home empires rise and empires fall the world is big enough, there should be room for us all who are they and why do they hate us

when Johnny comes marching home again (X3) we’ll all go out and welcome him never mind the shape he’s in we’ll ask him how the fighting went (X3) and how he likes the president casaulties are an accident we’ll beat our drums and wave our flags (X3) those great and grand and glorious rags the ones they put on the body bags and later on when the sickness comes (X3) from chemicals and uranium we’ll ring our hands and we’ll all play dumb see the veterans who did their part (X3) and came back home with a purple heart walkin’ around with a shopping cart where are the legs that used to run (X3) before you went to carry a gun I’m afraid your dancing days are done you have no arm you have no leg (X3) you’re an armless, legless, chickenless egg they’ll have to put you out with a bowl to beg we kill them and they’ll kill us back (X3) they say it’s always been like that all for the banker and his money sack tip your hat and take a bow (X3) get on with your life somehow they’re taking your little brother now

we used to have elections but we don’t bother anymore now it’s just backroom dirty deals behind cloak and dagger doors oil money, family fortunes, slappin’ each other on the back puttin’ people’s lives in their pockets and watchin’ while the money stacks goodbye America I’ll say I knew you when it was a long corner turnin’ gonna be a long corner turnin’ back again we used to have our liberties, back in the day but it was for our own good that they took ‘em away now it’s Homeland Security followin’ you around Old George cut that cherry tree and it finally hit the ground ‘cause there’s a new George now and he’s got an ax of his own and he’s grindin’ it real sharp and he’s cuttin’ it to the bone filet of America, and he’ll feed it to the dogs all for a bunch of good old boys riding high on the hog I’m gettin’ used to surveillance, and I’m getting’ used to the cops I’m gettin’ used to law and order when it don’t know when to stop I’m gettin’ used to soldiers, I can see them in my sleep I’m gettin’ used to everything and that gives me the creeps they say that once we were a beacon and we shone like a star well, two hundred years later, well here we are lookin’ out at the wide world through bullet proof glass followin’ a gunslinger preppie with his head up his ass we used think we were so superior, we could tell god what to do we thought we’d last forever and we acted like it too livin’ in a house of cards, waitin’ for a breeze and I think I hear the wind blowin’ way up in the trees so I got my compass and I got my flint rock spark time is comin’ on, but I ain’t afraid of the dark I got my eye on the future and it’s all green in clover so if we make it through this one, I’ll meet you when it’s over

such a pretty girl, as she walks into the market with the people all around her and the air so sweet and soft such a pretty girl, who would ever guess it that she’s wired with explosives till the bomb goes off mother did you know her, did she have a big bright smile was her heart full of love for the life all ahead of her and did you know them, were they the children of their parents and will they be remembered for who they really were and who would ever do a thing like that there has to be a reason, there has to be a reason there has to be a reason for that ignorance is easy when you look the other way and when you just don’t listen you can say that you didn’t hear a little voice callin’, like talkin’ to a brick wall and the pressure is buildin’ year after year somebody’s got the power, what are they gonna do with it are they gonna keep pushin’ down with the great big thumb anybody might snap when they don’t see a future another little girl, another little bomb and who would ever do a thing like that there has to be a reason, there has to be a reason there has to be a reason for that you say you got a symptom, you go to see the doctor you want to know the reason, ‘cause you want to find a cure well, we have a sickness, we’re shooting at the symptoms it’s only gonna get worse, I know that much for sure and who would ever do a thing like that there has to be a reason, there has to be a reason there has to be a reason for that

I’ll tell you a story, make it clear as I can about the far away troubles in the holy land pictures of the children etched in your mind layin' down their bodies on the firing line the people who live there, they live under the gun where it was homeland for a thousand years before the soldiers come surrounded by the armies, airplanes in the sky everybody knows some one who had to die (chorus) O Palestine, there's a hole in your soul O Palestine, will it ever be whole talk about the settlers, come from so far away talk about the money from the U.S.A. talk about the bullets made of plastic and steel pictures of a Palestine underneath the Iron Heel what do you do when they come to your home and they tell you your land is no longer your own do you let them take it, do you dare to resist pictures of a Palestine underneath the Iron Fist (chorus) O Palestine, there's a hole in your soul O Palestine, will it ever be whole we say we want peace but we pay for subjugation we say we want a settlement in terms of occupation we call for human rights but we never say what kind you can see what it's come to in the faces of Palestine does it ever make you think about the friends we indorse the armies of the generals riding on an iron horse does it ever make you wonder why it always seems to be such an undemocratic version of democracy (chorus) O Palestine, there's a hole in your soul O Palestine, will it ever be whole O Palestine, there's a hole in your soul O Palestine, let your story be told

I saw a woman’s face in the paper she was from Iraq I was looking at her and she was looking right back her eyes still haunt me over all of the distance such a human insistence demanding answers asking questions why have you done this why don’t you do something to stop it these briefcase killers these bureaucrat thugs these pushers of bullets and runners of drugs these colonels and statesmen these newspaper drones this idiot system this heart of stone don’t look don’t see don’t hear don’t think sit back relax have a smoke take a drink go to work go home watch tv watch the game let them breed dead babies in your ignorant name and her eyes still haunt me over thousands of miles and millions of agonies reaching reminding and tearing the blankness how can you do this why don’t you do something to stop it are we all just pretending depending on them to give us excuses when the going gets grim to pass resolutions to make it alright so that in spite of everything we can still sleep at night if we don’t do what has to be done we’ll be criminal ancestors everyone criminal ancestors doomed to the dust and whatever happens will happen to us her eyes still haunt me screaming the silence all the complicity of these American hands I have to answer when she asks me how can you do this and why don’t you do something to stop it I saw a woman’s face in the paper she was from Iraq I was looking at her and she was looking right back

they could hardly wait to get their triggers loaded when the airplanes hit and the towers exploded you shoulda seen ‘em on the TV it was the first big war of the 21st century the flames were still burning they already had their man they said that he was hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan we asked to see the evidence they said they couldn’t show this is war they said and that’s all you gotta know America you’re scarin’ me you’re makin’ me ashamed you’re goin’ out for blood and I can’t let you do it not in my American name you want to talk about the body count, let’s run it up the mast 5,000 people died in that New York City blast like the 5,000 people every month that you kill strangling Iraq for a dirty dollar bill you want to talk about brutality, alright let’s get it out depleted uranium now what’s that all about innocent victims can you even see their tears irradiated homelands for four billion years you want to talk about the terrorists and what makes them run you taught ‘em everything they know, you even gave ‘em the guns every killer with a grudge is just a tool to be used then you forget about ‘em until they make the news America you’re scarin’ me you’re makin’ me ashamed you’re goin’ out for blood and I can’t let you do it not in my American name an eye for an eye is the justice that you claim but the numbers that we’re talking about are a whole different game millions of people with no place to hide that’s not justice, that’s genocide I’m gonna have my say and I’ll say it loud and clear in every crowd, on every corner, wherever I can find an ear and you can try to shut me up but no matter what you do I got a right to speak ‘cause I’m American too America you’re scarin’ me you’re makin’ me ashamed you’re goin’ out for blood and I can’t let you do it not in my American name

you loved your sweet country for all of your life like your mother and father before you the land runs deep, so deep in your blood your flesh and your bone and your sinews descendants and ancestors, deep as it goes a relative circle as far as your eye it can all be undone in the flash of an instant mechanical thunder that bruises the sky, bruises the sky goodbye to my relatives, all of my life never again will I see you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes collateral damage is all you will be, all you will be from a faraway place where the language is strange they come with their angry machines and the clouds rain a metal that hurts when it falls and it shatters the ground, making everything scream and the children run crippled, old people hide the babies are caught in the rubble debris but the strangers don’t know, you are only a number under-reported on color TV, color TV goodbye to my relatives, all of my life never again will I see you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes collateral damage is all you will be, all you will be a mother is more than a number to a baby who now has to grow up on it’s own and a grandfather blinded and crippled at his age is more than just a statistical drone all of these people are human and humans are more footnote this cynical language of killing is killing us caught like a bone in humanity’s throat, humanity’s throat goodbye to my relatives, all of my life never again will I see you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes collateral damage is all you will be, all you will be so if you see a ghost in the lonely wind blowing like shrapnel the sound of the rain and it’s speaking a language you don’t understand but you know what it means just the same it’s too late for innocence, all of that’s over now don’t say that you didn’t know when they come to collect for the damages owed the collateral may be your own, may be your own goodbye to my relatives, all of my life never again will I see you won’t have a name when they fly the big airplanes collateral damage is all you will be, all you will be

We are born in nature and in nature we will die And if we don’t make it, it’s not because we didn’t try They say they will incorporate the world Over my dead body, over my dead body, over my dead body, over mine They have all the money but we have the will And I would rather be a match than a paper dollar bill They have all the guns, all we are is flesh and blood But we will multiply our numbers and drown them in our flood They say they will incorporate the world Over my dead body, over my dead body, over my dead body, over mine They have all the power, that’s what they say But we will turn those tables, take their power away We will not be dissuaded and we will not turn around We will face the barricades and we will tear them down They say they will incorporate the world Over my dead body, over my dead body, over my dead body, over mine You can call me a fool, that’s alright with me But I will live to see this good round world breaking free

if I could face the day the way the sunlight does if I could rise with morning mist then I would know the way that the water-fish swims I could hold the lessons in my fist we are dying, say the elders, and we don’t even know this is only a temporary peace we’re only waiting for the outcome to show and the endings to be released behind the silence of a great stone wall in the howling of a new wilderness beyond the distance of a great stone wall it will change, it will change it wasn’t always like this I’ve been to places where the clocks don’t tick and they laugh at the hard straight line where history looks through baby’s eyes and the light of the future is a good sign some laws are made of barbed wire and they lean to the privileged few but reality shoots from behind a blade of grass and its aim is true there’s a warfare fought in the bloodstream now and truth is a thing to be praised the lie gets mean and it hides in the marrow and it waits for the stakes to be raised and the dry rattle breath of exit time is a wake-up call to your ear and the feel of a fist at the end of your arm gives the answer to your tears there’s a light at the end of the tunnel they say and sometimes I think I see like a dissident glint in the eye of a needle and the glitter of a soul set free there’s a song they sing in the worst of times to lift your spirit on the wings and fly way on the other side of that storm cloud wall dancing in the clear blue sky