Marine Pens "Funny" Song About Killing Iraqi Family

We're creating monsters in Iraq. Or, perhaps we raised them here and sent them there. According to Stars and Stripes ...

A Marine Corps corporal seen in a video singing about killing members of an Iraqi family says the song was only a joke and not tied in any way to allegations that Marines killed as many as two dozen unarmed civilians in Haditha last year.

This Marine's song is called "Hadji Girl." First off, my brother served in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division, so I'm aware that the term "Hadji," used by U.S. military personnel in-theater to describe any Muslim, is totally racist. It's the equivalent of the term "gook" used in Vietnam.

The song tells the 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."

After Haditha and Abu Ghraib and that recent re-education on morals and values given to our troops in Iraq, one would hope that our soldiers could refrain from taking such celebratory pleasure in killing and humiliating Iraqis.

But not only did this Marine think that the killing of an Iraqi family was a great topic for commemoration in song, his Marine buddies loved the tune and "pushed him on stage with his guitar. Someone taped the performance and posted it on the Internet."

Great! So rather than shaming this Marine or telling him to get counseling, the songwriter is celebrated and encouraged by his fellow Marines. Can you imagine a high school senior performing such a song in a music class or a talent show? He would be suspended or expelled and the police would be called in fear of a Columbine-style attack! But in the U.S. military, such song craft is hailed and promoted. That's the way to win Iraqi hearts and minds, guys!

The one cosolation may be that the Marine seems contrite, now that he is under investigation, or under the glare of the media, or outed as someone who celebrates the death of "Hadjis."

"I will never perform this song again, and I will remove all video and text in relation to this that I have control of," said Belile, 23, who is assigned to the Marine Light/Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

He's only 23, so maybe this was a byproduct of immaturity under stress and exposed to questionable American military values.

Let's hope we never have to hear this song. Let's hope there men and women of goodwill left in our military after this Iraq War ends in, what ... ten years, fifteen years? And let's hope Iraqis can forgive us someday, for our invasion and "Shock and Awe," for allowing the looting, for our torturing, for our indiscriminate killing, for the white phosphorous, for Haditha and for this Marine's song and the mindset in our military that found it enjoyable.