Some nameless American marine was caught on tape singing a song called “Haji Girl”, and what’s worse is that the song (among other things) invovles the killing of Iraq civilians all set to the off screen cheers of fellow marines. The tape was making its internet rounds on Youtube before being picked up by the main stream press.
Do you think this will have any impact on American troops? It’s not a video of a murder, but this is not a good thing for american marine to be doing considering what happened in Haditha last year. what do you think?
… I’ve mentioned before that I hate the Macarena because it’s a military-service song that should never have been brought out of its intended target audience. Am I OK with a bunch of guys march-training with a song that’s got the right beat for it but lyrics for which their gfs might commit murder? Yes. Am I ok with having it on the radio every 10 minutes? No.
I didn’t watch “Full Metal Jacket” in English, but in the Spanish version the lyrics sung by the trainees were along the lines of “my sarge is a sonabitch”. I’m told by guys who’ve been in boot camp that it’s actually pretty accurate.
Songs sung by troops aren’t art nor do they need to be PC, imo; they’re “private” (no pun intended) and a good way to relieve stress. But they should be kept private.
Uh, what? I’ve never heard anything about it being a military theme. I know it’s not a perfect cite, but Wikipedia says the Spanish version was first released in 1993 as (basically) a pop song.
With regards to the “Haji Girl”, I think the issue isn’t what effect it’s going to have on the troops over there. If they’re joking about murder, then there is a serious problem. And sure, I understand it’s a rough job and they have to let off steam somehow and all that. But decent human beings don’t make light of soldiers murdering civilians. To me, this is just one more sign that something’s gone really, really wrong with America’s soldiers.
The farthest personal memory I have of that song is from 1980. A friend’s bf, just back from his military service, would hum it occasionally, then realize which song he was humming, blush beetle-red and stop.
When the song came out, coworkers of mine about the same age as Los del Río said they used to sing it in the mili. There were a lot of jokes about how a song from the Spanish mili had taken the mighty US by storm and stuff like that…
Yeah, its disgusting, but it’s the sort of thing armies the world-over chant while marching or during other activities. They don’t sing it because they mean it (usually), but because it’s seen as bad-ass.
it’s certainly not the sort of thing that’s intended to be displayed in public, picked up by the media and then made into a spectacle.
To sum up: This is TAME material, people. As I’ve said before, these folks have the worst job in the world and they live the dual life of hero and pariah. Never mind we pay them like the latter.
Takes a very specific frame of mind to live in a situation where everyone HAS to be treated like a friendly until they drop sights on you. It starts to affect your outlook and, by extension, what you think is funny.
I didn’t laugh at the song. But only because it was not a very exciting specimen of the genre.
“Their job sucks” isn’t a valid excuse for behavior that borders on sociopathic. They joined completely willingly and they knew that, by joining, they could end up someplace like Iraq. And there’s not overwhelming evidence that treat everyone as a friendly until proven otherwise. (cite, cite, and cite)
Soldiers have been telling rude and offensive jokes and songs about killing since before the Sumerians were fighting the Assyrians. These are guys in a hot deadly environment in a particularly nasty war; a counter-insurgency. They’re going to get a pretty black sense of humor. I guess some people enjoy the lofty feeling of pious superiority that comes with denouncing this behavior, but it seems like much ado about nothing to me.
Did you read the lyrics? It’s a humorous song, and one that in no way supports killing civilians. In the song, Hadji girl’s father and brother pulled their AK’s and shot her, then fired on the Marine. Taken literally, it was self-defense.
Sociopathic?? I want some of what YOU are smokin’ - it must be good, expensive shit. Did you bother to READ the lyrics? I didn’t read them until AFTER I watched the vid, and I knew what it was about before I read the lyrics. It’s about a Marine being suckered by a woman into an ambush in her family’s home. In other words, it’s about being ambushed by militant jihadists, and what came of his attempt to survive the ambush.
Sheez…grow the fuck up and quit being offended about every damn thing…it’s dark humor, and I’ve seen worse in movies (Bonfire of the Vanities, anyone?)…I guess if it’s the US Military, it’s automatically eeeeeeevil…geez…
But Chick, the behavior isn’t sociopathic. Quite the opposite in this case and with any “offensive” cadences. It’s a bonding thing for the soldiers–civilians aren’t supposed to get it, they’re not the target (heh) audience. I think Monty Python’s drag sketches are damned funny, but I do not dress in womens’ clothes…even when nobody’s looking.
Sure guys in uniform sometimes run amok with the locals and we end up hearing about it, but I would be very skeptical of an opinion that suggests they did so because of in-jokes, songs and cadences. they did it because they were losers to begin with–so blame society or genetics, or the individuals themselves.
Haven’t watched it and don’t plan to, but I have a question - how do you know that the person in the video is, in fact, a Marine? I could put on a tiara, but that doesn’t make me a queen.
In my years of active duty in the Navy, I was exposed to considerable rude, macho posturing thinly disguised as humor. It was a fact of life. I didn’t like it, but I knew what to avoid and what to ignore. I suspect this falls into the “ignore” category for me.
When my ex came home from bootcamp, he was cleaning the kitchen and I overheard him singing this to himself:
“Blood makes the grass grow. Marines make the blood flow. Kill the living. Eat the dead.”
I was just looking at him like he’d lost his mind. He said it was something they sang while running and he then proceeded to get on the floor and play with our 4 month old kitten.
The scary part: he sang other things- - - that one was way far from the worst.
My point is that it’s just a song to them. Something that sounds “badass” and gruesome to sing, all the break the tedium of labor.
And I’ll bet you wouldn’t have latched onto the guy in the first place if he’d just come back from a hitch in the Peace Corps.
There’s something in society that sort of requires a man to shock and disgust those around him every so often – or else we come not to think of him as quite a man.