Steve Cohen: “I wish to quote Jackson Browne's ``Lives in the Balance,'' a song written quite a few years ago but most appropriate for…”

“I wish to quote Jackson Browne's ``Lives in the Balance,'' a song written quite a few years ago but most appropriate for today. ``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 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 runs. ``On the radio talk shows and the TV You hear one thing again and again How the U.S.A. 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? 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? ``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 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.”