i guess i applaud what billy was trying to do, but jesus christo man, do yer freakin homework!
christmas in falluja? is that an inside joke, or are you so desensitised to the suffering of the men women and children being murdered by this occupation by yer moronic introspective, navel gazing culture that you don't recognize the irony of choosing falluja?
you know, a fundraising effort for the vicitms of war that totally ignores the vicitims of war?
you do remember falluja dontcha? it was the freakin guernica of this facist invasion. 60% of all civillian homes razed by the lufwaffe in a blitzkreig that used white phosphorus against civillians, used flechettes against civillians and starved a cities population for over a month...
why not christmas in mi lai? or christmas in the warsaw ghetto? i'm sure a few german soldiers were injured as they razed the warsaw ghetto (and who knows, maybe some german artist held a fundraiser for the maimed troops while the ovens were still smoking)...
i never thought of billy joel as smart, but always figured he was a decent guy, but holy crap is america ever insulated.
want to see what falluja was really about?
check out the pictures on dahr jamail's website of melted little girls and boys crushed alive in their homes.
One firend of mine was there trying to save civillians while US warplanes were blowing them away. she went door to door trying to get people to leave their hiding places and get on the bus she brought.
she found a group of children and a woman in one house who were too scared to leave, but they asked her to look for their grandfather, a blind man that had become disoriented during some bombing runs by us planes and wondered out of the house.
when my friend left and turned the corner, she found the grandfather, bloated and green from a chemical strife. she tried to pick him up and put him in a bag, but his skin came off in her hands, right to the bones of his arms, so she left him and carried on...
wake up america, wake up to what you have done. it's not too late to make ammends to the victims of your "democracy"...

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I wanted to do the same sort of thing helping the Troops with my Stars4Peace designs...

I will look up and contact this group directly..

Google Stars4Peace; to see the designs and I hope someone will make use of it to help our Troops who come home to such overwhelming problems and so many of too many are committing suicide and or being so ill-served by this Administration and the V.A...

I also wanted to have artists to do a series of CD's called Stars4Peace..

From every musical idiom and style the proceeds going to groups like this to help our wounded and troubled Vets and also Doctors without Borders as well..

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It is so great to see the mainstream artists come back around to writing, recording, and performing, music with a higher purpose. Of course I would expect Billy to be one to speak out.
Patrick
Musical Sounds of Resistance

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That was an amazing song. Cass did an excellent job.

That was a thing of beauty and power. Our Empire is destroying our military. Bring them home. Our politicians are worthless. The people have the power to bring our troops home now. We have destroyed Iraq. The Iraqis are living in hell.

Send this video to everyone. This is amazing!! Thank you

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Corny, cliche, and whiny.

Come on, Gen Y. Are you going to let this be your anti-war anthem? Or is it a secret weapon to put the overlords to sleep at the controls so you can take over?

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...I would have hoped for, but it is a start. I could still sense the hesitation and applogetic tone in Joel's voice during the introduction.

The fear of this administration is still amazing to me, since it is "run" by the biggest coward I have ever met.

However do not look for it to be played on any radio station in Amerikkka as Dillion got in the '60s

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While Billy Joel's song to remind of soldiers stationed in Iraq is well done, it totally misses the point.
Iraqi's are Muslim. While they may, to some degree celebrate Christmas as the birthday of prophet Jesus ('Isa), Eid alAdha would be a more important, and upcoming holiday.
Further, "fight the infidel" is such a corruption that I am almost ashamed to be American. Infidel is an Arabic word used to describe those not faithful to the oneness of God, or Allah, in Arabic.
Joel did accurately equate the US presence with the crusades, a pseudo-religious war that in truth was about stealing middle eastern riches. How right on target that was.
Billy Joel has, unfortunately, exemplified the American head-in-butt syndrome in which the assumption is that everyone wants what Americans want. That is why our country is now one of the most despised and disrespected nations in the world. World leaders? No, world bullies.

I personally will boycott both the young artist and Billy Joel's music. This is appalling, and depressing. I hope anyone thinking of a "happy holiday" at this time will donate to udhiya [Eid sacrifice] to be sent to Iraqis.


God help us all.

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He knows Muslims don't celebrate Christmas. That and the use of the word "infidels" is done in irony to get his point across.

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Universal Soldier by Buffy St. Marie is the quintessential anti-war song; it cannot be expressed more powerfully so succinctly.
St. Marie is from a First Nation in Northern Saskatchewan, CANADA. She now lives in Hawaii.

Universal Soldiers was written in 1963/4
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Labau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.

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Uhhh, that's not even a very good song. What's the entertainment value? Sounds like the opening is a clear rip off of Phish's "Sample in a Jar." The "artist" (I'll include Billy Joel in that vague term, too.)just isn't very talented. He'd play better at your local mall or two-bit street parade.

I'm not making any comment as to whether the war is right or wrong. Bill Clinton. GW Bush. Americans. Iraqis. Afghans. Saudis. Etc, et al. The song, performance, lyrics, etc, really sucks. It's weak. They could be singing about saving little babies from burning buildings. If they performed it like this, it would suck just as bad.

It's Christmas in Falluja. What a joke. The song doesn't make any sense and it's performance is cruddy.

Billy Joel should revist his "We Didn't Start The Fire" days. "Christmas in Falluja, it's been always burning since the world's been turning......"

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Billy Joel already wrote an excellent song describing how youth had been conned into the "war game;" it is called, Goodnight Saigon.

You may view the YouTube video of his performance at this site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpRuKyksxks

Goodnight Saigon
We met
as soul mates
On Parris Island
We left as inmates
From an asylum
And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho
To lay down our lives

We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy
But our bellies were tight

We had no home front
We had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy
They gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ
With all of our might

We had no cameras
To shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe
And played our Doors tapes
And it was dark
So dark at night
And we held on to each other
Like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we'd write
And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre
And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight

We held the day
In the palm
Of our hand
They ruled the night
And the night
Seemed to last as long as six weeks
On Parris Island

We held the coastline
They held the highlands
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive
And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Waif

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Once again, Billy Joel hits it right on the head. Immediately haunting and beautiful, its subtle angry warbeat slowly building to its inevitable "oo-ra" conclusion, this is a song that screams for Youtube video encores and much more.

This song must become number one on the charts and should be designated as the anthem for this war and its betrayed, unquestioningly loyal, and forgotten frontline participants.

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