Controversy is growing over the release of an amateur video of what appears to be a U.S. Marine performing a song called "Hadji Girl" while people in the background laugh and applaud. The video was first released on the video-sharing network YouTube, which features a wealth of silly and bizarre amateur videos. It eventually came to the attention of the frequent terrorist-apologists at The Council on American-Islamic Relations who complained to YouTube and issued an enraged press release, with the result that YouTube yanked the video, the press began playing up the controversy and immediately every teenager who had downloaded a copy re-uploaded it to YouTube.
The video features a man dressed in camouflage pants and an olive-green t-shirt with a military-style haircut — to all appearances a Marine — playing guitar and singing while the recording picks up laughter and applause from the background. The song is clearly intended to be humorous, and the crowd heard on the video clearly appreciates the humor. However, the lyrics of the song and its references to violence both to and by Moslems were not at all appreciated by CAIR, who apparently have a different take on what's amusing. The Marine Corps doesn't seem to be amused either and strongly condemned the video as "clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines."
| ' } else { echo 'HADJI GIRL'; }
I was out in the sands of Iraq, Then the first thing that I see Then suddenly to my suprise, Dirka dirka Muhammed jihad And she said that she wanted me to see; She took me down an old dirt trail Dirka dirka Muhammed jihad Spread the word 
 Article Author: Dave NalleDave Nalle has been a magazine editor, freelance writer, capitol hill staffer, game designer and taught college history for many years. He is now a pro-liberty political activist and designs fonts for a living. …
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - JP
Disappointing. Dave, I'm with you here that it appears to be WAY overblown. "Lost in Translation," the film, addressed the issue very well--language problems are as old as mankind. The guy made an amusing and, perhaps, lighthearted attempt to express that challenge in dealing with a people you don't understand. Drop it!
2 - JP
And honestly, (hit publish too early.. grrr!) isn't being in a conflict like this a source of mixed emotions? As a work of "art"--which it seems to be given his background of non-deployment and the song's basis in no specific real incident--I'm torn by the idea that he's expressing how one does what's necessary when under attack. I can see the controversy, but I'm not convinced this isn't getting far more publicity than it deserves.
3 - Dave Nalle
Well, this is exactly the sort of thing which political opportunists love, because they can take the basic facts and spin them to suit their interests, and harp on it endlessly and the media will play along with glee. We're reaching a point where every soldier with a video camera needs to think long and hard about the entire media culture and the political implications of putting anything on tape, and that's unfortunate.
Dave
4 - Dave Nalle
Yay. I see that whoever was re-editing this finally got it back to looking like it did when I first posted it last night.
Dave
5 - Lumpy
I don't give a damn what CAIR says about it, that song is danned funny. Thanks for providing a link to it.
6 - RJ Elliott
Great article, very well-written, and I agree 100%.
And it's a damn funny song, to boot! :)
7 - Dave Nalle
I'm actually surprised that the outraged left hasn't descended on this article yet. How can they ignore the criminal insensitivity of the song?
Dave
8 - Nancy
Sometimes I'm on the left, so I guess I'll qualify, except that I'm not outraged - at least, not in the way The Right would expect: there's a lot of truth in that song, which is maybe why CAIR doesn't like it. In any event, private persons are absolutely entitled to say/sing whatever they damned well please. Furthermore, just because someone is wearing cammie pants, it doesn't mean they're a marine, and even if they are, they're still entitled to their opinions. So there. The outrage is that CAIR or anybody else is trying to shut this guy up. And of course by being outraged, they've just succeeded in spreading it all over. Maybe that's what they wanted after all?
9 - Lumpy
Misdirected outrage is the bread and butter of the left.
10 - outraged left
Re:I'm actually surprised that the outraged left hasn't descended on this article yet. How can they ignore the criminal insensitivity of the song?
Dave
Hi Dave,
Outraged left here. You almost sound dissapointed that none of us has given your obvious insensitivity the time of day. So, being the sensitive type that all outraged lefties are, I thought I would enlighten you as to why that may be. We are well aware that there is not much point to engaging in a discussion with people who find anything at all about this particular situation and it's roots "humorous". To engage in a dialogue with that kind of sadisitc mentality makes about as much sense as trimming your nails with a chainsaw.
Maybe I will see ya around again sometime on the ideology battlefield. I promise you I won't laugh if you take one between the eyes.
11 - Chris
That is the funniest thing out right now!! I wonder what the CAIR thought of team america? also very funny. but not PC so deal with it and grow a set.
12 - Nicole Weeks
A Marine's job is to kill people and blow things up. The song is hilarious. It's about defending himself with the resources at his disposal. Pretty darn clever if you ask me.
13 - Dave Nalle
Chris, I believe CAIR was actively protesting Team America when it was in the theaters as well.
And thanks for stopping in, Outraged Left. I appreciate the honesty you show by admitting that you're not equipped to debate this issue in any kind of rational way.
Dave
14 - grh
I suspect if Iraq invaded the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers were singing little ditties about killing Americans, complete with wee jokes about the ridiculous "language" Americans speak, you might not find it as charming -- even if Iraqis told you it was "obviously satire."
15 - RJ Elliott
I suspect if Iraq invaded the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers were singing little ditties about killing Americans, complete with wee jokes about the ridiculous "language" Americans speak, you might not find it as charming -- even if Iraqis told you it was "obviously satire."
Moral equivalence, anyone?
16 - Dave Nalle
Let's clarify this statement a bit.
I suspect if Iraq invaded the U.S.
To depose a dictator and then sticking around to protect us from forieng invaders acting as terrorists.
and Iraqi soldiers were singing little ditties about killing Americans,
Or more precisely, about killing the terrorist invaders who speak the same language - perhaps Brits or Australians - but are foreigners of different religion and political allegiance.
complete with wee jokes about the ridiculous "language" Americans speak,
Yeah, language jokes just bum me out. They're so personal.
you might not find it as charming -- even if Iraqis told you it was "obviously satire."
If the Iraqis were saving me from Aussie terror cells in my country and overthrowing the Kerry dictatorship with its rape rooms and genocide of ethnic Cajuns I'd cut them a little slack.
Dave
17 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I don't know what kinds of songs Arabs sing about killing us, but I would remind everyone that the American occupation and subjugation of the Phillipines a century ago spurred another popular song - "Kill kill kill the Filipino" sung to a church hymn, I think.
CAIR can bitch all it wants. War tends to breed songs like this. Soldiers need something to keep up their morale when doing terrible things to defend their country - or the ruling class of their country, as is the case here.
18 - Nancy
When Al Qaida flew a couple of planes into various buildings here in the US, there was plenty of footage of Arabs dancing little jigs & singing the Arabic equivilent of "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead...", and nobody raised a peep about the indecency of it; therefore excuse me for not crying if we should make our own songs about our own subjects of war, however tasteless.
19 - Dave Nalle
And I guess I ought to point out that one of our traditional American favorites, Yankee Doodle was just this kind of song as well. Generally more positive and not cruelly negative about the British - at least in the version currently sung, but a lot of these songs had verses when written which were far more offensive than what we have in the 'official' partriotic version years later.
Dave
20 - SFC SKI
If anything this "controversy" just shows that most people don't appreciate gallows humor. Not only that, it just shows how much further civilians are from the military. Of course the lyrics will upset all the folks reading this from the comfort of their computer desks, where beer and pizza are just a phone call away, and people are generally not looking to shoot you when you leave your house.
The song was an illconsidered attempt at blowing off some steam in a place where we get very few releases. Take a look at some of Kipling's poems in the book you cite above. They might apall someone who has never served in uniform, especially in a war, but most vbets would probably give a grin at the familiarity of the sentiments expressed therein.
why do people insist on recording embarassing things like this, that's my question.
21 - KC
This song is supposed to be funny? Well, I suppose it is right until hadji girl gets shot. Then it gets tragic, rapidly moving into the realm of horrific.
I haven't seen the video though, and lack the patience to deal with watching it on dial-up (though if anyone knows of an mp3...) so I may be missing something in the delivery. (Given that Team America styled humor was a partial inspiration, that seems likely).
For a more direct analasys of the song... It's pretty brutal, war crimes all around type thing, but it really doesn't sound like the marine is condoning that kind of behavior. Like the OP says, the last verse is representative of the marine's own decent to the terrorists level.
Hell, this thing is really good on that pretentious art-house level I'm so fond of. CAIR needs to learn the difference between discussing a subject and condoning it.
22 - Roland
America is full of armchair soldiers who enjoy renting "Full Metal Jacket" and "Team America" but they still dont get what Marines are trained to do. What is supposed to have changed since vietnam? The corps is still a hardline military unit in an alien and hostile country and not peace keepers.
I think what is really hurting the corps is the libs closing this morale boosting site which really helped people under fire let of steam anonymously: americablog.blogspot.com
(caution contains images of life as experienced at the front line)
If the website discussed were still up this problem might never have occured. And if anything , I think the song, even with the correct lyrics, shows less direspect to Iraqi civilains in comparison. So thats an argumment for staying the course, because at this rate it will only take a few centuries before we start actually doing the surviving Hadjis some good. After all how long can we expect it to take, like being public servants for Arabs is supposed to be a job for the marines?
23 - Dave Nalle
How did they get that site closed down. It seems to me that with minimal effort you can find a host who's willing to host about anything - you certainly don't have to use blogspot.
Dave
24 - Roland
Well they did, I found my link to the original site just lead me to a sheriff department notice! Looks like the original site owner was arrested. I found that link by googling dont know about other links that still work.
25 - Dave Nalle
Ok, I got off my ass and did some research. The site was called nowthatsfuckedup.com and it was run by a guy named Chris Wilson who got a year in jail for pornography but cut a deal to surrender the web address in exchange for a suspended sentence. It's a real first amendment case, but he caved under pressure and ran. Some interesting info on the case with links to more info is on this florida site.
Pity the story's half a year old or I'd write it up for BC.
Dave