Collateral

Welcome to Cuba—Guantanamo
We call it Gitmo—you can’t pass Go!
Unless you know someone who’s really in the know

We don’t have to play by the rules.

We play good cop—you enemy
We play baseball...with your knees
Send the picture home to Nanny, she’ll be so pleased

‘Cause we don’t have to play by the rules.

If anybody asks you, we do what we are told to do.

I am Rendition, I am so dope

Ask for conditions, I’ll give you rope

There’s lots of money to be made by selling hope
‘Cause we don’t have to play by the rules.

I am the King, you little girl

My friend is dead—show you the world

You cracked my head, so I get to crack your pearl
I don’t have to play by the rules.

If anybody asks you,
I do what I am told to do.

Back channels, riding these camels
Through a nation in shambles—

It’s a hollowed out brokered deadline
Infidel hokum— it’s better to smoke ‘em,
Taxpayer—soak ‘em
Grab another jug of oil and moonshine.

There was a time when we were men
There was a peace that might have been
If only we were humble, we could let some virtue in

But then we’d have to play by the rules.

It’s murder from a distance— that’s what it’s all about
For you and me and everyone, so we don’t feel left out
It’s empire building
while they beg, scream & shout
We really have no use for the rules.
If anybody asks us, we do just what we want to do.

Peace is spoken while treaties are broken, we’re all just token
There’s no justice when you’re drowning in sin.

Torture commerce—I hope they don’t bomb us.

Is it butter or promise?
Can we kill ‘em all and call it a win?

It’s business here as usual as the bodies get stacked
And if you raise your voice
they will shoot you in the back
They are the very terror, they are the very fear
There’s nothing they won’t do
for an oath that they won’t swear
For power seeks power at the end of every rope
Is the man who screams for mercy as the woman prays for hope
But prayer now is meaningless, faith has no darker hour
When it’s the fate of every orphan to eat dirt instead of flour
This dirt is in the hearts of men as they even up the odds
You can’t wash away the sin when you act as if you’re God.
God...God...God...God!

Woe as me, Oh Abraham!
Can I go with Lot?
For every Abel there’s a Cain—
That I’ve not forgot

Preachers come and preachers go
While teachers are ignored
Never thought I’d see the day
When the pen fell to the sword.