April twenty-eighth, 1945
I've got to steal chicken, eggs, and bread to keep my family alive
In Al Awja I thrive, raised in slums of the slums
While the bourgeoisie were feasting I was feeding off crumbs
There's no sense 8 years old, the world placed on your shoulders
A child nobody noticed, just Atlas holding boulders
Dad left me at birth, step-dad beats me near d**h
I'll get back at him yet if I've got any life left
1947 - moved in with my uncle
And while living is better, I can already sense trouble
But who really cares when you're spit on your whole life?
Witness to my countrymen cut by the knife
I'm learning to read and write, Kayrallah's taught me politics
How Britain supplied weapons to k** us are now hidin this
I'll have my revenge, it's just a matter of time
Til I speak out on actions and head to the front of the line
Chorus:
Everybody has a cause, but aren't willing to fight for it
I'm working til I'm lost, and I'm willing to die for it
Avenge atrocities of the past, I'm forfeiting rights for it
I'm just a product of all I've seen, and I'm giving my life for it
(2x)
Successive, successful a**a**inations placed me in the right army
Where I'm second in command after joining the Ba'ath party
Being shot at and exiled, in control of it all
The forefront of Arab worlds, uniting all or downfall
1980, in command, given weapons from United States
To gas Iranian insurgent rebels I've grown to hate
After 8 years it's peace, but now my country is broken
But the US is attackin - puncture wounds already open
I'm going insane, everybody is my enemy
I've k**ed off all who abandoned me, murdered my pedigree
I live in hell you see, fear, any day they will slaughter me
And now my destiny's a lie, I've become the hypocrisy
I swore that I'd never be, there's no justification
For my actions that, over time, split my country to factions
Through all I've tried to do, it's remained the same, nothing's changed
I'm making sure history remembers ME, Saddam Hussein
Chorus
Everybody has a cause, but aren't willing to fight for it
I'm working til I'm lost, and I'm willing to die for it
Avenge atrocities of the past, I'm forfeiting rights for it
I'm just a product of all I've seen, and I'm giving my life for it
(2x)
The bombs have been falling for seven months, half my friends are now dead
100,000 women and children eternally resting in bed
Dad and I have fled to a barrack near patrols
Hoping to avoid the bombings by living in fox holes
Why exactly does America want to murder me so fervently
Can't it all go back to the way that it used to be
In the calm before the storm - a shimmer of hope's
Quickly quelled by GI's storming towards that somehow we've provoked
Dad turned to me, grabbed my hand, told me to run
Then to make sure I could, he reached for his gun
But the race was now done, he was mowed in gunshots
Any promise for the future in that instant were lost
I held my dad in my arms, my tears dropped to the ground
It's 2005, the soldiers kick me while I'm down
I'll have my revenge, it's just a matter of time
Til I speak out on atrocities and head to the front lines
Chorus
Everybody has a cause, but aren't willing to fight for it
I'm working til I'm lost, and I'm willing to die for it
Avenge atrocities of the past, I'm forfeiting rights for it
I'm just a product of all I've seen, and I'm giving my life for it