How do you compare bad with bad?
do you substract the dead Salvatorians
from dead Iraquis?
do you substract tortured Chileans
form poisoned Kurds?
and with whom do you exchange
the exterminated Vietnamese?
He who calculates with a bad memory
he whoe tells lies from lies apart
he who wants to compare evil with evil
deserves the war het gets
And the off-writers sharp their pencils
like the military sharp their bayonets
on balances of power
they weigh corpses by the million
they divide fear by honour
and deduct radiation from profit
He who's in the red
finds no mercy in their eyes
and he who pays his debts
is considered by them as weak
They measure everything,
In valuation and prognoses, except
the shortest way from their office
to the underground shelter
they measure it in mm/sec
They've got tongues like split atoms
with which they lick
theirs pens of rocket steel
before they balance their books.
They work day and night
they work fire and ice
they write off
cities against oil-wells
childrens against money-lenders
freedom against power
They work day and night
they work fire and ice
they write off
and end up at
zero