Intervention

I was driving through the fens in a peaceful English scene
Paid for by my grandfather the original gunners dream
I was taking life for granted though I was born to die
It's been a long time since a bomb dropped from the expansive Norfolk sky.

I was listening to the radio and the talk was all of war
Freed themselves from Tito settling old scores.

I was far from Sarejevo it seemed irrelevant to me
If it was U.N. troops or diplomats that had to intervene
We are impotent in our power do we dare to fight again
Must we always kill for freedom what will intervention gain?

It's a symptom of repression and a people held at bay
No freedom of expression waiting for this day
If we impose our standards on a people newly freed
We will be the opressors and the curse of war will breed on.

Don't let it breed on
Don't let it breed on.

But her cries went right through me
Gripped my heart till I thought that I would die
That little child on the operating table
I had to stop to wipe the tears from my eyes.

They had no drugs to comfort her to dull away the pain
As they removed the bloody legacy a cruel shrapnel rain
That had destroyed the lives of the ones she loved
That would shake your faith in the Lord above.

And the eyes of the world they are turning away
She had no natural resources to protect her in her play
And the backstreets of her home town
they are burning down in flames
She is part of a new crystal nacht an ethnic cleansing day.

We are ignorant we are partisan
We are ignorant we are partisan.