In a 4-minute video, a Marine strums his guitar while singing a song about killing members of an Iraqi family. The Marine says he is sorry, that it was just a joke and not related to the allegations of the Marine massacre of 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha.
In the video called “Hadji Girl,” a singer who “who appears to be a Marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iraqi woman’s family after they confront him with automatic weapons.” Knight Ridder reports that a named Marine discussed the song in another paper, and admitted that he wrote the song when in Iraq last September. Cpl. Joshua Belile says “it’s a song that I made up and it was nothing more than something supposed to be funny, based off a catchy line of a movie.” Belile also admitted to being the singer: “Belile said he wrote the song in September while in Iraq. He said his buddies pushed him on stage with his guitar. Someone taped the performance and posted it on the Internet, but it has since been removed.” However, a Marine spokesperson says that officers were investigating and that the “Marine Corps didn’t know the identity of the singer or whether he is in the military.”
The “song tells a story of a Marine who falls in love with an Iraqi girl and is taken to meet her family. The girl’s family shoots her and then attacks the Marine, who uses her younger sister as a shield and watches blood spray from her head. He then sings about blowing the father and brother `to eternity.'”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) requested that the Pentagon and Congress investigate this song and video that “glorifies the killing of Iraqi civilians.” While a “Hadji” is a “person who has made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca,” the terms has “often been used as a pejorative by U.S. troops in Iraq.” The song’s lyrics include:
“I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. . .I blew those little f*kers to eternity . . .They should have known they were f*king with the Marines.’ Members of the audience, not shown in the video, laughed and cheered wildly for these lyrics.”
Comments were posted at some web site “apparently … by other military personnel” who “express approval for the song’s contents.” One comment states: “This makes me happy to be a Marine. But look out! Here comes the rest of the country to call us evil!” Other comments stated the video was racist.
If this named soldier is not lying about being the singer and songwriter, one can only wonder how the US military plans to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis when there is a string of activities of this nature occurring in Iraq.
Killing a family is a joke? What is the punch line?
Thanks so much for bringing attention to this joke…I can always use a good laugh. I’ll be chuckling all day about this one-laughter is the best medicine now isn’t it. Makes me feel tingly all over that some of our troops are so talented with lyrics. Maybe it will become the number one hit in Iraq to help win the hearts and minds of the ‘hadjis’ eh?
Ok, just in case any wayward people end up here who don’t recognize my sig..this is of course fucken sarcasm. Of course even if it turns out not to be one of our troops it’s still sickening by whoever did it.
One man’s joke is another man’s outrage.
One man’s joke is another man’s national shame.