If you've ever seen the movie, 'Team America: World Police", you'd know that anything referring to it is some kind of joke.

Or maybe not, but the thing is that you can't know for sure. Strings or no strings. Puppets or no puppets. Who is the tool or puppet here?

Maybe he knew the song sucked. And it sucks, big time. Does that mean the message is stupid? I say, yes. Did the guy who sang the song knew how bad it sucked? I say, yes. Can we then infer that maybe he and his audience might know and understand more than we think they do?

Well, I think it was a joke not meant for wider stupider audiences.

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This is life and death. These are the same soldiers murdering families at check points. The same soldiers who act as if the Iraqi's attacked us. Normal soldiers.

Put anyone in such a situation and you get this. Evil is overwhelmingly banal in its occurences.

These soldiers will lie about killing when they return. This is more of the same body-count, free-fire zone mentality from the Vietnam war.

War is always an abnormal situation. Not a movie. Not funny. Not a joke. But a great big, terrifying adventure. And "Hadji Girl" simply shows it, regardless of the denials. These are our young people. What the hell have we created?

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of this kind are what comes with the U.S. at war package...why are you surprised..we are not....it's what you get when you have wars and occupations....attrition sets in and the grind starts and the U.S. military as always, is totally insensitive to a populace.....they sorta know they are in the wrong....you would have to be a dumbshit to not feel the tension against you....I wrote a long time ago of looking into the eye's of the Iraqi's and look for the gleam from the corner and the unturned head...you will have your answer...the marines feel the eye's on the their backs and they know there is absolutley no safe place for them....same as Nam...same as everywhere they have been in recent history...of course they are going to write irreverent songs...they are dieing for some rich prick and they need you the people to get them home....Yo..way to go USA...is that a mighty invincible abrams tank burning in the street...Dads and Mums did that.....time to withdraw it has been lost. Please don't insult me with any Blah Blah about any chance there is of a victory for the rich pricks ....anyone who thinks this is a possibility obviously believes in the tooth fairy....time to face reality..I can't wait to hear what the evacuation is going to be called....Um! how about a "strategic repositioning of assets to take advantage of policies set in place to facilitate a more optimistic outcome of Iraqi governmental controls" Mmmmmmm...Lets all sing along...sorry I couldn't help myself..Iraqi's aren't singing are they... EOS

Captsin OUT

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If this is what is happening within our military ranks, we are in for major problems. The laughter in the background was ludicrous. This whole troop needs "diversity" training? Or, a major overhaul of mental and emotional attitudes! I blame our government for such a low level of humanity among our boy soldiers! When will they ever provide a man with a true understanding of warriorship? Mobster Boys are running our military and government!

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The first goal that must be acheived before a government can condone and promote authorized killing is to dehumanize a person or group of people. Our country, through the prodigious efforts of our leaders, have successfully dehumanized those who live in Mideast countries. This was started long ago but gained success after 9/11. It is impossible to draw a clear line between "terroriststs" and Muslims as the government and media constantly merge the two, either overtly or covertly. Those who have been trained to kill have no method to identify bona fide enemies so have succumbed to the "kill them all and let God sort it out" mentality. This was predictable and represents just another failure of those leaders who unilaterally committed this country to a war without real enemies, only those made up by propoganda.

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Racism, sexism and other such intolerant treatment of others by the American military is alive and well. This is another solid reason why we should withdraw all our troops from Iraq and other places where the USA has military bases. The illegitimate criminal current leadership does not understand that they are creating such huge international resentment of Americans that there is no way they can occupy other countries without making their citizens fiercely mad at the illegitimate occupiers. We have lost the so-called war on terrorism because American troops have become the number one terrorists created by American greed and violence caused by the Bushies.

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You can just add this music video to the long list of signs of the time that American foreign policy is on the wrong vector. I don't condemn the marines who put the video together. Condemn the leadership that put them in the situation that this video came to be made. Never ever being in the situation this young men have been placed in how can I say I would not do the same things? I'm thinkinig that if they don't dehumanize the Iraqis then they see that it is truly they themselves who have become sub-human.

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"Hadji" is a title given to MALES who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. "Hadja" is the title for FEMALES who have completed the trip. "Hadji Girl" is ridiculous!

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If the main objective of the atrocity that the United States of America is now comitting against the people of Iraq was winning the hearts and minds if the Muslum world in general and the Iraqi peole in particular, then we might as well hang it up. That opportunity has been utterly and irreparably destroyed.

Singing a song about US soldiers slaughtering a family and then posting it on the internet is not exactly the smartest public relations ploy, if you know what I mean. Trying to justify it by saying that they were just a bunch of brave warriors letting off some steam is inexcusable. They should have known better. It also illustrates better than anything I've yet seen that a good deal of US military personell have been so desensatized by the madness that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have unleashed on the world that they are starting to view these people as less than human.

This is all on the top of recent revelations of soldiers gunning down entire families of men, women and little children in cold blood. This is a geo-political catastrophe that will take, at the very least, a century to remedy. This war is over.

So let's all support the troops ay? Heh! Heh!

I think I'm gonna be sick.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/

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What were you expecting from the Republicans? Kindness and understanding?

How long can it be before we hear the same old tired excuse ("a few bad apples") that tries to shift the blame away from the criminal leadership to the hapless grunts that it manipulates to commit its atrocities for them?

A few bad apples, huh? More like a bad government set up to run like organized crime. This type of failure is systemic to America now. The whole damned orchard is poisonous. Everywhere that this administration has had influence one finds a bushel of bad apples. Everything it touches turns to feces. What isn't broken?

If America was a club, you would quit it. If it was a spouse, you would divorce it. If it was a business partner, you'd sell your interest. If it was a job, you would quit it. If it was a subscription, you would cancel it. If it was a toilet, you would...well, you get the drift.

But it's a country. Oh, what to do!

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un fucking believable
i dont think i can read the news anymore
especially about people defending this shit, it should not be tolerated.

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Yes, over two weeks ago Marine Corporal Joshua Belile apologized to The Council on American-Islamic Relations about his song with lyrics like,"I blew those little f**kers to eternity ... "

There is a caveat, however, according to the least biased source I could quickly locate online, CAIR is a allegedly funded by elements within Saudi Arabia and of a fundamental Islamist bent.

The news story I originally found, after the initial story broke, about the apology was posted on the Pakistani Daily Times.com.

So anyway, the reactionary wing nut right see Belile's apology to a known anti-American, anti-Christian Islamist organization, CAIR, as an insult. Reactionary Islamists, on the other hand, will read Belile's apology as insincere.

The upshot is that the extremely stupid and racist Belile is a pawn in a much bigger game to keep the West and the Muslim world at loggerheads, to the greater benefit of the Houston-Riyadh Axis, the true asix of evil.

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Anyone who's had sociology 101 or read up on any history of any wars knows it is imperative to one's mental stability to see "the other" as something more and less than human. How detrimental would it be to one's mental health to realize one is killing a fellow human being? To actually THINK about what one is doing and take responsibility for it?
It was dumb to have that stupid little show taped, but the Marines needed that little show to reinforce their camaraderie in a scary place where they are doing things that must twist them at their core.
How much better would it be if they all realized their true enemy was the one man who decided they should go over there and die and kill so that he could get re-elected?
I'm with John Lennon and, "Imagine" what would happen if they all just became concientious objectors. Come home and use that vitality and hatred and funnel into politics. Help get someone in political offices that won't get anyone killed for personal gain.

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The American "culture" has a long-standing addiction to eroticised violence, getting more and more explicit even as the denial builds. It's so obvious, once you think about it - there's no point in even specifying how the imagery of torture and murder echo orgiastic experiences. There are so many levels of preparation leading to someone experiencing sexual pleasure from such imagery (not to mention pleasure from actually perpetrating such actions). Just think about it - can you think of some of the themes in American culture that encourage de-humanization of others and help bring about loss of the ability to see oneself as human unless one is in absolute control of the situation? Generation after generation, getting further and further from the wisdom of acceptance: of one's own power and limits, of others' place in the same beautiful and terrifying universe, of one's own mortaility and the preciousness of life. As a psychologist, I see it over and over again: identification with the aggressor: boy grows up under his father's cruel dominance, and internalizes contempt for himself as a powerless little sh--, and such feelings can only be expiated by projecting that contempt onto worthless victims; read: women, children, other religions, those who look different...

WE ARE IN SUCH DENIAL. Our guys just keep watching the blood sports and playing the video games - these don't create the tendency to be aroused as power is combined with blood and callousness and debasement of the "other", but they sure do underscore, reinforce, and basically teach that connection over and over. It's behavioral/sexual conditioning in its clearest form.

And a warning: never, ever try to get between an aroused man and his source of pleasure - the howling will be loud, and the reaction may even be dangerous. Freud said when you interpret a psychological link, it's like "spitting in his soup" - basically pointing out the obvious so it can no longer be denied (and enjoyed in ignorance).

The whole right wing fascist outrage over enforcement of standards, regulations, and "political correctness" hinges on this reaction: don't you f---ing dare to interfere with my arousal, and don't you dare point out that I'm getting off on debasing others. And don't tell me it's not gender-connected: it's no accident that the American fascists refer to the hated welfare state as "the nanny state". They see regulations and civility as the attempt of "the mother" to exert her influence; "Hey, my dad didnt' put up with that sh-- and neither will I!"

The American fascists remind me of Hitler's boy, Goebbels. When other Germans called the Nazis coarse, and a threat to the best in German culture, he said, "When I hear the word: 'culture', I reach for my gun." Reminds me of the street thugs who grab their dicks as a gesture of defiance and contempt. Ugh, sometimes the whole thing makes me feel sick.

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Yes, thousands upon thousands of videos and photos posted by muslims showing the most gorry slaughter of human beings. All of this is done to the sounds of praying and exhortations to praise allah (don't forget boys and girls, islam means peace).

These US soldiers don't even come close to the heinous crimes comitted by muslim terrorists. I would like to see the Islamic council come out against those videos first. I would also like to hear, some five years later, some sort of condemnation from them for the 9/11 attacks. Alas, they remain silent on these issues.

I remain proud of US servicemen and women. They do what I couldn't do, and they mostly do it with pride and discipline. They are protecting us. Calling a few locals some bad words doesn't change the facts: war is hell and sometimes people say a few bad words.

I would focus my progressive energies on the maelstrom fo hate coming from the islamic world and its apologists in the west. That is offensive and it is dangerous.

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"The war itself is encouraging these dark aspects of human nature, by bringing Americans and Iraqis together in an environment full of tension, fear, hatred and violence. And if the war itself is creating these evils, how can it hope to end them?"

This so called song, horrible as it is, screams out at us. It shows unrelenting hatred and distrust at it's most fundemental level on both sides. Neither understands nor cares to understand the other, it's about survival. The iraqi protecting his family, the marine protecting himself. This is war, plain and simple, and i'm sure the history of it is riddled with such tales sung, spoken, and nightmared. This is also exactly why they need to come home now. There is no repairing this chasm of fear and hatred.

I am saddened beyond belief after having read this, having had one more thing slap me square in the face. The real atrocity is that the US military, and by proxy the entire US, now carries the weight of being the very terrorists they proprosed to eradicate.

We need to bring them home and restore some semblance of pride & nobility not only to ourseves but also to those we're supposed to be protecting. It's time we take back what our founding fathers intended when they helped created this country.

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Soldiers are not diplomats nor are they "peacekeepers." They are not trained for either role. Soldiers are a weapon. Weapons are used to force compliance by those who direct the weapon. If that weapon is welded by incompetents, innocent bystanders will be hurt and/or killed.

In addition to being a weapon, a soldier is also a human being. When they are being used as weapons by incompetents in an unjust cause the human in the soldier sees that and knows.

But, being a weapon under the absolute control of another leaves the soldier with few choices. He can choose to see the insanity of the situation he is in and the actions that are required of him. That way, though, is the way to personal ruin, "dishonor", and perhaps an ignoble death.

His other choice is to dehumanize the opponents - and in the process, dehumanize himself. When he does this, he can excel in his master's purpose of forcing compliance on those who refuse to comply.

Until about 1950, most major wars were really simple. Establish a line, called the “Front" and hold that line. By using a combination of superior tactics and superior force, the Front is gradually expanded to take in more ground. Any hostiles in the newly taken ground were neutralized (killed, captured, or otherwise incapacitated.)

Wars fought in this manner are simple for the soldier. The mission is clear. Neutralize resistance and expand the Front. The "enemy" is therefore anyone who attempts to subvert this mission and enemies are to be neutralized.

On the other hand, wars such as Viet Nam, and now Iraq, where there is no Front, the situation is much more opaque. It is inevitable in such situations - where missions, objectives, and even the enemy are fluid and change day to day - that soldiers will, to facilitate their own mental and physical survival, become dehumanized.

For this reason, soldiers are no more to blame for the result then are other weapons of war. However, they do make better scapegoats.

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You say that these soldiers would not react like this if they were not put in this situation. What does that mean? The fact is that these men and women are there killing in far greater numbers than they are dying. What do you expect them to do? That's what they were trained for!!!! Why be so surprised if all this horror already happened in the Phillipines and then Vietnam. Read some history.

Americans go to war generation after generation, take pride in that fact and assume to know so much about dying and killing.

But we haven't fought a foreign power on our own soil since the 18th century. So we, us NOW, don't know what war is like for a civilian, don't know what it's like to be invaded and bombed. Don't know what it's like to have our children killed, their mutilated bodies in our hands.

Americans do know about racial segregation. It was the law of the land until only 40 years ago. I live in Miami, a deeply segregated city. Not by law but by culture. I grew up in Chicago another city segregated by culture.

And then there is the segregation by class. The poor, the middle class and the rich. Don't think we're divided? Explain Katrina and the aftermath.

This defacto segregation teaches us how to stay among people like you. It's interesting how the media depicts this separation in very many ways, some interesting, some stupid.

And you have a society that deeply rejects other languages. Americans don't travel outside of the USA, they go to lala land, Disneyland. If they travel they feel threatened by the reality of others. And the vast majority only learn English, and pride themselves in this limitation.

So the soldiers, men and women, who decided to go to Iraq to avenge 9-11 are just a show of the society at large, and of course ask any soldier from any country what their priority is and you'll get the same answer: stay alive. And don't just blame Bush for sending them to fight. Don't sidestep our love of all things military.

It's time we stop blaming just a few for the extensive ignorance we have of the world at large. It's time to stop talking about war as if we know.

It's ugly to see this hideous video but my experience tells me it's part of a greater political cultural reality. That soldier expresses, as an individual, what it means to be rich, powerful, and ignorant and proud of it.

As opposed to being a gibberish talking, poor, dirty hadji.

Si o si????? Ustedes dirán.

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The Iraq Vichy

There is an interesting historical parallel between the Nazi occupation of France and the American occupation of Iraq. The Vichy government was installed by an occupation just as the Iraq government was. Hitler did not call for any elections in France because at that time election fraud had not become a science. Unlike Hitler: Bush who had stolen two elections in the United States did not fear the electoral process. The Iraqis who turned out to vote did not even know who they were voting for. The Vichy government in France initiated a civil war just as the faux Iraq government has. This is why Iraqis are killing Iraqis. The idea that civil war in Iraq is caused by religious differences between the Sunni and the Shiites is false propaganda used to justify continuing the American occupation. The Iraqi girl blogger said: “Just go and take your Chalabi’s and traitors with you.”

There are other similarities that have the stink of fascism. There is no difference at all between Hitler’s “blitzkrieg” on Poland or the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and what Bush proudly named “shock and awe”. They were all unprovoked attacks on unprepared civilian populations by war criminals. The deliberate use of torture and “rendition” and the atrocities of killing women and children all fit the fascist plan. The open violation of human rights by the holding of 300 prisoners on Guantanamo just off the coast of Florida without a trial should horrify any decent American. The clear statement by General Miller after being sent to Iraq that he was going to “Gitmoize the Iraqi prisons would have had him sitting in the dock at the Nuremberg trials.

Why are Americans tolerating this abomination? Are they like the Germans who claimed they did not know about the gas ovens? Why are American Jews accepting another holocaust for their cousins the Arabs? Have they forgotten the lesson of Germany and Pastor Neimoller who said, “When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned, when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions, and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions, and I was not concerned. When Hitler attacked me and the Protestant Church--there was nobody left to be concerned.”

===========================

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Remember that is the reason they are there...

At least that is what Rush, Hannity, and Fox keeps telling them.

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When 17, 18 and 19 year old boys get together, they sometimes do insensitive things. Our military is, after all, a product of our society. To that end, I should advise you that locker rooms, hunting camps, and motorcycle rallies are similarly NOT all PG rated.

These folks carry M16's and sidearms. As best as I can recall, and the the best of my knowledge, halos are not general issue. So, don't expect boot camp to turn certain members of society with an insenstive streak into angels. We have law school for that, right?

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"It would be a mistake to imagine that the casual brutality of "Hadji Girl" is coming from people who are simply evil or racist or cruel."

Simply? It may not really be possible to know the content of these soldiers hearts. Some may be evil, some not. But this is racism. In word and deed.

My personal opinion is that pundits shouldn't be so quick to soft peddle it.

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The tree that bore this poisonous fruit is the Bush Administration.

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There's only one strategy that will work - that's withdrawing the troops and abandoning the real plan, which was apparently to split Iraq into three countries - Kurdish, Sunni and Shia - as a means of expediting lucrative oil leases, or production sharing agreements, and also to limit the power of any future Iraqi states. Imagine splitting New York into Catholic, Protestant and Jewish 'states' - that's similar to the government-media PR on Iraq. But I'm from a Catholic family, and my wife is from a Jewish family! Sorry, you are now to be segregated. After all, Jews... are Jews. Don't you feel a cold wind blowing down the back of your neck when you hear things like this?

I like the Iraq Vichy comparison. You know, if foreign troops from some other country were to march into Iraq right now and drive out the US (yes, that would probably result in nuclear war, but 'lets pretend'), they would almost certainly be greeted the same way that American troops were when they drove the Nazis out of France. If that's not a sobering reality check, I don't know what is.

The ancient Greeks said that hubris was the greatest folly that human beings were capable of, and once again they have been proved right. Nevertheless, ultimate responsibility rests with the military and civilian leadership, and they are they ones who should pay for their crimes first. However, all soldiers in Iraq should also review the conclusions of Nuremburg: The excuse of 'following orders' does not absolve one of responsibility for brutality and amorality. Furthermore, you can be sure that this 'song video' is now part of Al Queda's recruitment package, along with Gitmo and Abu Grahib photos.

I recall a television interview with a veteran soldier in Gulf War I, and he said, "when we took those prisoners, and didn't torture or beat them, I felt like I could finally live down my experiences in Vietnam". Ouch. You think the recent savage torture of those two captured soldiers had something to do with AbuG and the rest of the Iraqi prisons set up by Rumsfeld and his torture boys? How come we haven't heard any condemnations of the treatment of American POWs in the media? A captured soldier is a POW, isn't that true? No, they are now 'enemy combatants'. The Geneva Convention? Didn't Gonzales say it was "quaint"?

Let's be honest here. Rumsfeld and crew think they are military geniuses, but they're really just a collection of stupid greedy bastards. Their media cheerleaders are just as bad. Take a look at these photos of Nazi leaders.

Note any similarities to the present situation?
A Day in the Life of Ivan the Afghan

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I was listening to NPR the other week and they made a comparison between Iraq and the Phillipine War we were involved in early in the 20the century.

The soldiers were far from home, they were hot and miserable, there was no easy way to tell friend from foe, and they weren't quite certain what they were doing there. So they committed the same sort of atrocities that the current military is being pilloried for.

I can't excuse any of this. We never shoud have gone there in the first place.

Also, as I understand it "Haji/Haja" is a title of respect only to be applied to those who have completed the Hajj to Mecca.

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Gee, anyone remember "Race" Bannon and Hadji? You wonder where imperialist attitudes like this come from.

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Browsing through some of the comments here makes me wonder about the respondents' intelligence. I don't have any doubts about the intelligence level of the soldiers/marines wearing the uniform that represents me or their ability to tell the difference between right and wrong.

Briefly, let's remember that Article 48 of the 1977 addition to the Geneva Conventions, Part IV, states "The parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives."

Article 50 is even more explicit: "The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character."

Our military is not taking the high ground here, they're operating at the moral level of the insurgents. So many people say they "support our soldiers". I support Lieutenant Watada, who is refusing deployment to Iraq beause the war is "manifestly illegal". Our soldiers in Iraq are war criminals.

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2008 cannot come soon enough...

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

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Much classier music, too.

And much classier leaders, ones who actually believed the filth they were spewing, had actually served in real combat, and weren't just in it for the money.

And braver too. Not content to hide behind braindead moronic cokehead puppet "Deciders".

No, the Nazis had the courage to put themselves and their sick beliefs right out on public display.

Amerikan Nazis are so much smarter, aren't they?

Except of course, for their gambling that there isn't really a God.

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Someone pointed out earlier in this thread .. the little boys that fight for your cheap gallon of gas make good scapegoats for the monsters in power.

Ignorant little farm boys with skid marked underpants .. scared shitless .. and with guns in their hands. Their job is to kill .. that is what they do .. I mean 2500 lives for the lives of 250,000 Iraqis .. they are doing a great job .. Your leaders are laughing all the way to the bank as the flowers of your nation drains your countries life blood into the sand.

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Did anyone every really think that this type of behavior would not occur in Iraq? I opposed the war largely because I do not find anything to admire in death or killing. It would not have been possible to go to war with Iraq and not have the whole mess punctuated with events like Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and Haji Girl. These occurrences are reason enough to be a pacifist.

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Why is anybody surprised at the antics of these American soldiers?

Racism, sexism, stereotyping, and general cracker behaviour is alive and well in America - remember Katrina? So when GIs take that behaviour with them, they take a little piece of home. Charming...

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If any of us killed women and wrote songs about it, we'd be locked up quicker than shit through a goose. These assholes will get medals. What's so righteous about slaughter? Does it solve anything? Do any of these murderers think they've improved the quality of their lives or American's lives by taking someone else's life? Remember people, this war has NOTHING to do with freedom. There is no glory or heroism in death and destruction. You are pawns in a game run by rich and powerful cocksmokers who are lining their pockets by turning soldiers into brainwashed assasins. Do you really think that the government gives two shits about the soldiers? No. They want you to be sadistic pricks, and if you get killed then no big deal. This song proves that the government is getting exactly what they want. If you think you're doing a good thing in Iraq then you need many many years of therapy.

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This neatly sums up 200+ years of US genocide, war and conquest in a nutshell.

The only thing new to me is that the empire lacks the carefully crafted Cold War anti-communist propaganda that permeated society and the military when I "served".

What really amazes me are the many ways people seek to defend "our boys" and their brutality. Hell, the Iraqis are just responding to another illegal US invasion -- history is replete with examples.

For those defenders -- don't worry. The corporate mass media is fully on board with the so-called "War on Terror". It's only a matter of time before our propagandists have undermined enough of our liberties and brainwashed enough people to ensure the safety of the military-industrial complex's profits for generations to come.

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I can see both sides of the story. What do the Iraqi soliders sing about the Americans? We need to hear that too.
I wonder if my brown skinned daughter were in Iraq, would the Marines shoot her?
I know Marines, on the ground and in cyber space.
I actually wanted to apply to be a chaplain's assistant with the Marines, but I am too old.
So those are my facts, at least what I am willing to reveal here.

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I must admit I only skimmed through this article and the comments, but I must say it doesn't surprise me one little bit. I think the song is disgusting, but I don't think he should be punished for writing it. If anyone is to be punished (apart from the entire Bush administration), it should probably be whoever put it on the internet.

It's a childish song, but it is also an interesting insight into the American soldier in Iraq. I think it shows his fear of being in Iraq and being a vulnerable person. Fear leads to anger. Fear and anger make people do strange things.

But we have to remember that we all want to feel free to think and say and sing whatever we want. If people are offended by the song (which most people here, including myself, probably are) then write a better song - about the soldier. Make your lyrics describe his cowardice and ignorance. I pitty him.

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For those of you who think this is just ho hum, par for
the course and everybody who thinks this is sick
are oversensitive, this is a society of decent people.

We are not Nazis. We were shocked to learn that it
was possible for a civilized nation to breed such
depravity and call it manliness back when we were
fighting "The Good War."

This isn't comparable to WWII no matter how much
invective people give to support that notion. We
have sent American kids into something they do not
understand.

They are the subject of hatred by the population
over there for a good reason, if anyone cares to
actually stop and think. If a bunch of teenagers
hopped up on heavy metal broke into your girl's
home and shot the place up and abused people
in the home, think how you would feel.

Most guys would be out of their minds with
anger over such a thing. If the girl was killed,
very likely, you would sweat to get even and
you might well succeed.

We were lied to about the purpose of going to
war against Iraq and have been lied to again
and again. This is FUBAR. It is driving our
guys into a completely crazy space.

For God's sake, we have to recognize that
our troops are teenagers in a video gallery
and the reality of what they were involved
in won't hit them until months or years after
they have come home.

This Iraq war will have been costly in terms
of the effects on both Iraqi kids who grow
up to really hate what happened to them
and their families, and on American kids
who grow up after coming home to live
with what they have done and the mental
space they lived in that made it seem like
a sane option at the time.

We have to get our troops the hell out of
there. This whole thing is a really sick
and perverted mess.

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I don't buy the bad apples argument but I also don't buy taking a limited sample (how big is the audience how widespread is this video among troops?) and extrapolating to the rest of the massive number of troops there.

I think the part in the article about not being able to communicate is criticle.

"The New England Journal of Medicine reported in July 2004 that 1 in 6 soldiers returning from war in Iraq showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, or severe anxiety"

I'm suprised it's that low, I'd expect at least half.

I was at some of the really early protests pre-war in my city when most of the crowd was outside the mainstream. There was almost just as many cops. I remember I stopped going to protests once the troops went in- I figured it was hopeless / would be bad for the troops to do so at that point. Lame looking back, are there protests anymore or have we all given up? I've felt like a failure inside for a long time now - it all is just so fucking depressing.

The song is wrong but I'm afraid I'm still a bit sympathetic to the soldiers. They didn't do their homework beforehand about the war- but most of america didn't either. Most of them and most of America thinks Saddam was behind 9/11 or protecting Bin Laden.

Zogby survey troops:

"While 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.”"

"The continuing insurgent attacks have not turned U.S. troops against the Iraqi population, the survey shows. More than 80% said they did not hold a negative view of Iraqis because of those attacks. About two in five see the insurgency as being comprised of discontented Sunnis with very few non-Iraqi helpers. “There appears to be confusion on this,” Zogby said. But, he noted, less than a third think that if non-Iraqi terrorists could be prevented from crossing the border into Iraq, the insurgency would end. A majority of troops (53%) said the U.S. should double both the number of troops and bombing missions in order to control the insurgency."

http://www.zogby.com/NEWS/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1075

These guys can't tell friend from foe. "There appears to be confusion on this" I think should be the most important line.
These guys are in a foriegn place and some probably never even met a Muslim before.

The armed forces however should really be conducting language classes - I've learned some really basic hi/bye stuff in Arabic and it's not that hard.

The funny thing about the poll as well, most of the troops favor pulling out. Maybe it's time to take up the marches again.

"An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows"

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As someone old enough to have lived through WW2 and to have marched, as an adult, against the war in Vietnam, I actually feel encouraged. Not by the details of these atrocious stories about the behaviour of brainwashed soldiers but by the fact that we are now, in this 21st century, finally recognizing and admitting how atrocious these things really are. Finally, after all these centuries, the general public is talking about - and protesting about - the facts of war itself and how soldiers are deliberately brainwashed and brutalized and what it does to their psyches. And saying that the whole thing is WRONG. Saying that war itself is wrong.
I think it is really encouraging that we are now experiencing this collective angst about things like brainwashing, massacres, torture, rape, gratuitous brutality and gross objectification of 'the other' - things which have been part and parcel of human warfare for millennia.
Psychology students, ever since the Milgram experiments in the seventies, have learned that the majority of people are susceptible to brainwashing and this capable of committing atrocities. But it wasn't something that got discussed a lot outside academia.
There is nothing new about the behaviour of these marines in Iraq. Soldiers have always been brainwashed into objectifying the 'enemy' so that they have no compunction about murdering them. It's just that now we are horrified about it. Like the facts of life, the facts of war are now something we all freely talk about. There's no more horror in Iraq than there has been in any other war. But it has finally become visible to you and me, rather than remaining the stuff of private nightmares for those poor sods trying to return to civilian life.
As a child, I had a collection of postcards that my mother had received from her uncle in France during the First World War. I recall one in particular - a picture of a smiling British soldier, rifle in hand, standing triumphantly with one foot on the belly of a dead German. They all bore slogans like 'The only good one is a dead one'. Attitudes were not much different in WW2, except that we pretended otherwise. Pictures of enemy dead were no longer printed on postcards that were sent to young girls by their uncles. We all kidded ourselves that war was a giant game of cricket and that only the Japanese broke the 'rules' and were brutal. (So we dropped an atom bomb on them).
It was the Vietnam war in which the new awareness began to creep in. I think the turning point may have been My Lai. And now, Iraq has laid bare the true realities of war for all to see. It is waking us up. Not everyone -- not yet. But the fact that there are now millions of us feeling horrified, indignant, disgusted instead of smiling at the postcards, well I think it is an encouraging sign. Maybe we are at last on the way to becoming civilized. If enough of us were committed to a world beyond war, there could be no more war, no matter how badly the leaders and oil barons wanted one.

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I see no problem with our soldiers dehumanizing the enemy. It's an old trick to fool the mind that the human being you are destroying is not quite human and therefore worthy of destruction. It is a certainty that our enemy is doing the same thing.

It's unfortunate for our soldiers and our country that there is a certain group that believe the US has no enemy worthy of death. That makes it a one sided fight with us on the losing side. Rather they should say, "Blessed are the peace makers, the M-16 the M1A1 and the F-111."

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... It would be a mistake to imagine that the casual brutality of "Hadji Girl" is coming from people who are simply evil or racist or cruel. The soldiers occupying Iraq are normal men and women who, in other circumstances, would never commit the abuses that have been documented in Bagram and Abu Ghraib and that are now alleged in Haditha.

Alleged??

You know, other soldiers from actual professional militaries, unlike the cowardly marines, do just fine in far nations without daily news of abuse, attacks, murder, ignorance of the Geneva Conventions, and racist videos by the common soldiery. For example, Canadian soldiers in Afganistan or English soldiers in Iraq near Basra. These armies don't function like the US army. The differences are easy to see. Are they more normal? More human?

To say Americans are "normal" is only to compare them to other Americans.

The truth is, America is a nation of extreemly racist people. It's very noticable when one travels in the USA. Considering how easily the War against Islam was accepted in 2003... oh excuse me, the war against terror... whatever... just goes to show what an ignorant, uneducated, self-involved, sick and miserable culture Americans live in and weirdly consider "normal".

Didn't anyone even see CRASH?

Americans are not normal. Americans believe, with all thier hearts, they are morally justified in everything that they do, no matter how murderously horrific (just like terrorists, ironically). The fact the soldier in this video wasn't immediately kicked out of the marines goes to show it's acceptable behaviour. Something this article fails to point out.

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Can anyone imagine how a group of young Americans could be sent out to shoot and blow up another group of people without first convincing the troops that the enemy is composed of despicable, sub-human vermine?

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It seems to me, that the antics of these out-of-control, under-provisioned invaders of Iraq (whose salaries we all pay) are forcing the ultimate pull-out decision by US authorities.

The only question is how much more abuse and carnage will the US public tolerate? The answer at this point, seems to be "plenty".

Steven Wanzell
artist/activist/ex-American
www.wanzellarts.com.ar

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What country are we living in? The USA or some weird idiot nation?

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Invasion and long-term occupation of a country is always a disaster with one exception - when the local people support the invasion, come over to your side, and shower you with flowers.

In other cases, the locals fear and hate the soldiers and attack them whenever they can. This is the same thing that happened to the Germans in Greece, the Japanese in China, the Soviets in Afghanistan, etc. To a 18-yr old who has been shot at repeatedly, everyone starts looking like the enemy. Once one of your buddies is killed, you don't want another one killed; at that point the lives of the local citizens mean little compared to the lives of your companions. This always happens in these situations, and it is a sign of corruption, dishonesty and incompetence and in the upper echelons.

The propaganda, 'shock and awe' war initiated by Rumsfeld, followed by the looting of the country and the corrupt no-bid contracts handed out to Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel et al, the dismissal of the Iraqi army, the initiation of a 'torture and humiliate the locals' program (of which Abu Grahib was just a part) along the lines of the Central American terror of the 1980's, and the deliberate attempt to separate Sunnis, Shias and Kurds were all military strategic blunders of epic proportions.

So who is the criminal here? The military members sign their rights away, but that means their commanders, right up to the commander-in-chief, are the ones responsible for this mess. Rumsfeld, Cheney, and all their little lackeys are the real war criminals - Bush himself is little more then a programmed talking head.

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Thanks steve, for pointing out the obvious to this blinkered piece of shit.

I-RIGHT-I wrote:
The Islamists will go the way of the American Indian

Proves my point. A typically racist American. An American idiot.

I-RIGHT-I, if you were standing in front of me, you wouldn't be for long.

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That about says it all. Too bad America is such a lumbering idiot. Can't say I'm proud to be part of such an ignorant, macho and hyper-militant culture

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Beautiful. This song explains, in one simple expression, why Americans are so hated in the world and why we can expect it to increase. Thanks to the "leadership" and example set by W, the entire country is perceived by the rest of the world as one big group of arrogant, blood thirsty, supremely selfish and inhumane thugs. And logically, if you are a concerned world citizen who sees the terrible damage done to the entire world by his policies, you would support the suppression and containment of his actions by any means possible. It is then only a small jump to understanding the mindset of suicide bombers. It is time for all concerned citizens to do everything possible to contain the devastating effects this president is having on the environment, people's health, our democracy and global relations. KR

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Actually, what has changed since the first Western-European insurgency, consisting to a great part of criminals and outlaws, was fighting and finally almost exterminating the indigenous North-American Indians?
At that time it was much of the ignorance and stupidity which breeds arrogance to feel superior.
Today it's the ignorance and stupidity created by the permanent propaganda of the consolidated mass media, it's brainwashing and insistance, that the American Way of Life shall be adopted by everyone. Poor American souls, being submitted to such cruel limitation of views, being subdued by the Money Masters in London, New York and Tel Aviv, and their puppets in the WH, and elsewhere in this world.
Wake up, stop consuming, stage a general strike against this sort of modern slavery. If not, whilst to-day you are asked to kill relentlessly in other countries of the world, tomorrow you may be forced to kill your kin. And when the Masters will succeed to get their computerized killing robots, it will be your turn. SO, WAKE UP!

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As I read the horrifying details of the investigation of the rape, murder and burning of a "Hadji Girl" and the murder of her child, husband and brother-in-law by five soldiers in Iraq, I wonder if those who praised this marines' esprit de corp will also condem and scape goat those soldiers for doing what the song encourages them to do.

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When I saw the song performed on internet video, I couldn't actually understand the words. But I could see the arrogance and casual hatred of the Iraqis in the performance. And the response of the audience showed that these young troopers were totally in sync with the sentiments of the performer. They loved it. They were totally into the arrogance and hatred of the song and the performer. It was disgusting.

Where do you think this attitude comes from? Seems to me it comes from the very top. Arrogance and hatred are hallmarks of the Bush administration. linked text

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July 1.2006
....Any Black man who has had the misfortune of being
confronted by a carload of shit faced beer drunk white male
college student 'Ubermensch' on a street in Anytown USA...
knows exactly what is going on in Iraq with some of
'our boys'...it is the same bunch of cowardly,vicious,racist
sadistic cocksuckers...but now with the (fire)power of the
Pentagon behind them.
People continue to make excuses for these men...they are
out of control WAR CRIMINALS...they and as importantly
their superiors should be tried and if found guilty....sent to
the same fate as (some of) the Nazi vermin who governed
the Reich....those who weren't 'reinvented' by Paperclip.

BTW...let some black GI strum a few notes about how he
would like some Israeli 'beyatch' to lick his crotch.....His ass
would be in Gitmo before you could blink an eye.

Oh BTW there are hundreds of (literal) children on death row
and/or doing multiple life sentences with no possibility of
parole in this country.....why is a 12 year old to be held to
a higher standard of accountability than a 20 year old, ????
...If you rape and murder Iraqi civilians....'poor baby' was
under stress.......
There was a movie..Red Dawn..came out in the eighties....
I suggest all hypocritical.,,.lying... pieces of racist
dog shit...check out a copy of this video and see how
bread basket Americans were depicted in terms of how THEY
would react to being subjected to what the Iraqi people are
currently the victims of.

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July 1.2006
....Any Black man who has had the misfortune of being
confronted by a carload of shit faced beer drunk white male
college student 'Ubermensch' on a street in Anytown USA...
knows exactly what is going on in Iraq with some of
'our boys'...it is the same bunch of cowardly,vicious,racist
sadistic cocksuckers...but now with the (fire)power of the
Pentagon behind them.
People continue to make excuses for these men...they are
out of control WAR CRIMINALS...they and as importantly
their superiors should be tried and if found guilty....sent to
the same fate as (some of) the Nazi vermin who governed
the Reich....those who weren't 'reinvented' by Paperclip.

BTW...let some black GI strum a few notes about how he
would like some Israeli 'beyatch' to lick his crotch.....His ass
would be in Gitmo before you could blink an eye.

Oh BTW there are hundreds of (literal) children on death row
and/or doing multiple life sentences with no possibility of
parole in this country.....why is a 12 year old to be held to
a higher standard of accountability than a 20 year old, ????
...If you rape and murder Iraqi civilians....'poor baby' was
under stress.......
There was a movie..Red Dawn..came out in the eighties....
I suggest all hypocritical.,,.lying... pieces of racist
dog shit...check out a copy of this video and see how
bread basket Americans were depicted in terms of how THEY
would react to being subjected to what the Iraqi people are
currently the victims of.

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A Google is in order at this time. Try-Arab Mind + doorstop. The article from The Guardian will explain a lot.

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The military seems to have turned normal American
teenagers into sick fucks.

We should rethink the "Support Our Troops" deal. We
should definitely bring them home. But unfortunately
some of these violence addicts are going to become
armed robbers and thugs on our streets, or at least
soreheads who can't really deal with disagreements
in civil society. We may see more Timothy McVeighs
as a result of this.

The military is destroying America in order to save it.

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So what? If they don't dehumanize the enemy, how do you expect Marines to kill them?

This is not a case of "cultural isolationism and prejudice"--it is a case of Marines responding to those who would kill them.

You kill the enemy, or the enemy kills you. It's that simple.

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Little Green Footballs gives one of the most disgraceful and disgusting endorsements for a war song I have ever seen, and some of you people, your responses, your lack of concern for civilian life of any race, is nothing less than abhorrant. Where do you people come from? Are you really Americans? For all of you who endorse this song and find this even remotely acceptable, may God forgive you ... I sure as hell won't ... and I thought I could forgive anything until just now. This "song" is nothing less than sick. There is no humor what-so-ever is this piece of sh*t writing. What is with you people who are endorsing this kind of behavior? Is this what God is teaching you? me? Christians? You've had got to be kidding me!!! There's no Christ in you ... or if there is, why don't you let go of all the hatred you're holding and let His love guide your thoughts? No wonder I can't sleep tonight ... I've finally realized that pure SOB's live and breathe. I thought there was good in everyone ... I have read so much hatred in some of your thoughts and explanations ... excuses ... excuses that add up to nothing except more lives lossed in a war that is seeped in greed and power.

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This story is all about protect the musslims do not speak bad of the musslims F@&* the musslims anybody see the news when all the musslims were protesting us and isreal. Did you people forget who made 911 happen? I did feel bad about the people of Iraq at first but when you are living with these people for so long and you see how they operate they discust you. So all you people that watch way to much news and have so much time to ridicule a Marine for cracking some jokes about people that would kill him for a few bucks really need to get a life im sure this sight will remove me but thats all right go hug a tree

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new1
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