Great song "We've Been Asking Questions" - John Phillips

[carpediem]

We just watched the PBS program "My Generation---The '60's Experience" and at the end Scott McKenzie sings "We've Been Asking Questions", written by John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas, a very timely song, IMO- This song was written right before he died in response to the fact that war on Iraq was all but inevitable...

Here are the lyrics:

We've Been Asking Questions
by John Phillips


We've been asking questions of everyone we meet
People that we've known for years, neighbors down the street
How did it happen, how were we played for fools?
Gamblin' with our children's lives in a game that knows no rules
We need an answer, a reason why
The rulers wage the wars, but our children fight and die


Mothers and fathers, you're charged with your children's lives
It's up to you to cull between the truth and all the lies
Is there a parent, livin' on this earth
Who doesn't realize what their children's dreams are worth?
We need an answer, a reason why
The rulers wage the wars, but our children fight and die


Did you ever think about the pain in the night
Of the mother whose child was killed in the bloody fight?
Or the young veteran who comes home, but not the same
Did you ever wonder how it feels to have that pain?


Presidents and dictators, tyrants and the shahs
Order you to go to war according to their personal laws
But don't blame your mothers and your fathers, or your feelings inside,
Cause you're all the victims of generations of lies
When it comes right down to it, it's up to you
The future of the world depends on what you do.

I forgot to add the link to the comments by Scott McKenzie:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~hartman/mckenzie7.htm

[jojo54]

1. Here's one that I think relates, big time

Lives in the Balance by Jackson Browne:

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 interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
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?
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

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 every thing 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 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

[carpediem]

2. yes that does relate amazingly well.

I just downloaded Richie Havens version from ITunes. Thanks.