Hadji Girl
A dreamer of pictures
I run in the night
You see us together,
chasing the moonlight
If you recognize the title of the post, you probably braced yourself for a rant. It's okay, I don't blame you. But relax hon. Sit back, make yourself a nice cuppa, and enjoy. I'm in my happy place today.
There used to be a police drama called Homicide: Life on the Street. In probably the only episode I ever saw (or at least remember seeing) Robin Williams played a small town tourist in the big city with his family for the first time. I think it was Baltimore. Early in the episode, Williams' wife is murdered in a random street shooting, and the rest of the story deals with his coming to terms with the tragedy while the police investigate. The reason I remember this episode is because there is one very powerful scene in which Williams' character stumbles across some detectives glibly discussing the case in terms that can only be described as gallows humor. Williams' character is enraged at the lack of gravitas, and explodes at them. The lead detective takes him aside and tries to explain to him that as unfortunate as it was for him to overhear the conversation, gallows humor is a coping mechanism for these investigators who have to deal with death every day.
This is what I thought of when I came across the Hadji Girl video that everyone's talking about . As a liberal elite left-coaster I know I'm supposed to choke on my granola with outrage, but I actually found it quite funny. I imagine a room full of Marines who, faced with death and destruction every day, take solace and camaraderie in the performance. It's not meant for us, it's meant for them. I suppose I'll have to turn in my L-card now.
UPDATE: sigh . This is why it's not meant for us.
The video's a little muffled, but here are the lyrics, found at SFPH. You might recognize the melody from Team America: World Police .
I was out in the center of Iraq,
and we were under attack,
and well, I didn't know where to go.
Then the first thing that I could see,
Was everybody's favorite Burger King,
So I threw open the door and I hit the floor.
Then suddenly to my surprise,
I looked up and I saw her eyes,
and I knew it was love at first site.
And she said, "Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad",
"Sherpa, Sherpa, Bakala",
Hadji girl, I can't understand what you say.
And she said, "Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad",
Sherpa, Sherpa, Bakala",
Hadji girl, I love you anyway.
Then she said she wanted me to see,
She wanted me to go meet her family,
But I, well I couldn't figure out how to say no.
Because I don't speak Arabic, so…
She took me down an older trail,
And she pulled up to a (unintelligible).
And she threw open the door and I hit the floor,
Because her brother and her father shouted,
"Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad"
"Sherpa, Sherpa Bakala"
They pulled out their A game so I could see,
And they said, "Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad"
Sherpa, Sherpa Bakala"
So I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me
and as the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes,
and then I laughed maniacally.
And then I hid behind the TV,
And I locked and loaded my M-16
and I blew those little fuckers to eternity,
and I said, "Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa, Sherpa Bakala
Shoulda known they were fucking with the Marines".
June 14th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
I loved it, thank you for sharing. I’m going to pass that around a little to the people that need it.
June 14th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Time and place. In the video, both were fine. But as a video for people safe at home, war not even in their minds, never seeing real death; of course they would see it differently. Poor guy. Being sent to a foreign country, at the end of the enemy’s sights, and now on the hate list of anti-military nuts out there.
June 14th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Hi Amber, love your site, loved you til now, but I am disapointed in you that you find any humor in this dispicable song. It doesn’t make a difference that it was intended to boost moral because it only encourages violence against iraqis. Shame on you and shame on these soldiers. They and you should be representing America better than that.
June 15th, 2006 at 2:04 am
To those who understand dark humor and catch the reference the song may be somewhat funny, but I find it inappropriate coming from enlisted military personnel. Some humor is better left unspoken, especially in this case where a camera was recording and the internet exists.
June 15th, 2006 at 4:57 am
Salista:
If you’ve ever seen Full Metal Jacket (if you haven’t, you probably should) you will know that the military has come a long way, but you honestly can’t expect them to respect and honor people 24/7 that they are there getting shot by and having to fight against. It just doesn’t work like that. Whatever songs they sing are not encouraging them to kill Iraqis, the fact that many Iraqis are trying to kill them encourages that. The song is a result of this, not a cause of it. Plus Amber and this soldier are representing America -perfectly- because they are expressing themselves, which being an American gives you the right to do, hopefully without prosecution.
Krones: You cannot blame someone for saying something just because a camera is present and the internet exists, if that is the case then you might as well never say anything at all ever again. It probably wasn’t a good idea on his part, but no one should be expected to be perfect.
Amber: Homicide did take place in Baltimore, and it was a pretty good show. Though since I am from Maryland and have lived near DC/Baltimore my whole life, it’s funny that you called Baltimore a “big city”. Keep up the great blogging!
June 15th, 2006 at 8:29 am
I’m in strong agreement with Salista and Krones. I don’t see how you can justify thinking this video is anything but inapropriate and inciting of violence. It is very possible that Cpl Belile, by writing and performing this song, will be responsible for the deaths of soldiers. I understand your point about gallows humor and not being for general consumption, but so-called humor like that simply cheapens those who participate and desensitizes them. As someone who runs what looks like a popular blog, I would think you would be more selective in what you cover.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Even if I may not approve of the song, I’m not blaming anyone. However, I do believe Marines are held to a higher standard of conduct, they should strive for perfection. I have nothing against camaraderie between fellow brothers and sisters in arms, but all parties involved, distributor, recorder, singer probably knew if Hadji Girl was leaked it would offend a culturally sensitive war-torn nation and portray all troops as devilish in the eyes of the ignorant.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Pretty sick sense of humor you’ve got.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Life is hard isn’t it. It’s tough to deal with reality, when it lands on you like that. Shame on anyone living in their safe little homes, condemning these soldiers for trying to stay alive and sane.
Some of these comments sound like they were made by a hollywood celebrity with no clue about what goes on out here in the real world and the harsh realities of how people try to deal with difficult situations. I can’t begin to imagine (and honestly neither can those posting here) what those soldiers deal with each day.
Next time that soldier finds himself being fired upon by civilians and instead of acting he pauses to reflect. He’s no longer sure if he’s doing what’s right, because of public reaction to his song. He ends up too slow on the trigger and sent home in a body bag. Those offended by this song and crying out against him, should get the pleasure of explaining the situation to his mom.
ps. Amber you can still keep you L-card. You’re doing well, but you still need to spend some more time in detox.
June 15th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I’m pretty liberal, but I still have a very sick sense of humour.
That said, there’s nothing funny about the song, in my opinion. Not because of the supposed outrage of it, I don’t really care about that at all. They can say what they like as far as I’m concerned, it’ll only come back to bite them in the ass anyway.
But the song itself, purely on its own merits, just isn’t funny. I want my two minutes back.
June 15th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Lyric teasers are back, yay!
Glad you threw a lob on the first one, I’m a little out of shape. Neil Young, Cinnamon Girl.
Dave (someone stole my cool internet name)
June 16th, 2006 at 5:20 am
I don’t have a problem with soldiers using gallows humor. I don’t have a problem with anyone in a stressful situation using gallows humor. Heck, I’ve done it myself. I think it was very inapproriate to video tape it though. When record was pressed on the video camera it stopped being a way to deal with a tough situation and became something darker and hateful. The soldiers involved need to be punished so they learn what is acceptable behavior.
The point I’m tryng to make is this type of humor in private is an acceptable way in our society to deal with tough situations. It is not acceptable to take those private displays and make them public and that is the lesson these soldiers need to be taught.
June 17th, 2006 at 12:01 am
Well normally you see this stuff the night before a fight, everyone is pretty nervous but they don’t want to show it. So that leads to a lot of yelling and such to show that they are not at all nervous. So you hear a lot of Semper fi devil dog, do or die. There is one great thing though, everyone is immortal, at least that’s the idea that everyone has, sure there are concerned about their buddy because he’s not immortal like them.
But to anyone holding up your noses, I’d like to see how you fair under the pressure. We always had a few guys talking about how this was this way and that was that way, but it all goes away when your butt is on the line. And than that dribble doesn’t seem to hold the same substance that it once did for you. And some of the guys, not all, but some that would talk big about all the friendly lets hold hands crap would snap under the pressure and than you would have to sit there for the next few hours trying to help them pull there shit together. Not saying that there ideal’s lead them to this place, just saying it’s nice to talk big when you don’t have to put your butt on the line for it.
June 17th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I’m going to go with poor taste, not funny, but not worthy of reprimand.
Incidentally, my ear says it’s “AK”, as in AK-47, the automatic rifle, not “A game”.
June 17th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I’m honestly disappointed by the people defending this video. Now, I like dark humor as much as the next guy, and I think most of the song is actually funny… until you get to the last few verses. I’m frankly shocked that anyone would really think talking about killing children, in this case young girls, is funny.
Sorry, I can’t get behind the logic that the death of children, or the deaths of civilians as a whole, are funny. Dad and the brother were armed and not really civilians, you’ll note. But, is grabbing a unarmed, young girl and using her has a bullet shield, then “laughing manically” as she dies really all that side-splitting? It’s that bit that really sours the song for me, turns it from dark humor to something simply tasteless. It also points out why we’re having trouble in Iraq in the first place; our soldiers are arguably over there to protect the Iraqi civilians so that they can build and run their own country.
It seems the apologists here are forgetting that the modern soldier is not just a killing machine. If killing were all it took, then we have a lot of really great soldiers waiting in our prisons. I heard ol’ Charlie Manson knows how to kill people pretty good. I bet he could even sing an amusing song about killing little girls that Amber could post up on here and we could all get a good chuckle out of.
But that’s not quite so funny, is it? Not so easy to defend Manson by saying, “you honestly can’t expect [him] to respect and honor people 24/7….” You can’t just say blame “what goes on out here in the real world and the harsh realities of how people try to deal with difficult situations” to explain those murders and attitudes away. There’s a damn good reason why there’s a world of difference between a psychotic killer and a good soldier in both deed and thought.
So, please, tell me how I don’t really know what it’s like to be up on stage with a guitar, and how that stressful experience really does make it funny to sing about killing children. Explain to me how I have no right to speak up because I knew I wouldn’t fit into the military and I decided not to pursue that career. Accuse me of not being a patriot because I can’t find the ability to laugh manically at the thought of a little girl being shot between the eyes.
sadf.
June 18th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
“Explain to me how I have no right to speak up because I knew I wouldn’t fit into the military and I decided not to pursue that career.”
You have every right to speak up; you just have no experience in the matter. You can have an opinion on the subject and find the video distasteful all you want. That’s not really something any of us can control, how we feel about something, I think that people take this stuff to seriously, but that’s on them.
People that have no clue about the jokes because they don’t have the experience. It’s the same as a child not getting adult humor; they have no experience in the area of the joke. I sure if Amber told me so weather joke, depending of how deep it goes, I would not understand it either because I don’t have the experience.
But as you said that you can’t get behind the logic, just trying to explain to you why you can’t, the video hits you differently than it dose me, I have the experience, same video, different experience.
But just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t mean that it’s bad, it just means that you don’t understand it so it appears bad in your eyes.
But I well give you that you do have a point; he is doing the same thing that pretty much everyone here is doing also. He is generalizing, instead of saying that this guy is bad and that woman is bad he just pins it on the entire Iraqi people. Mostly because it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad, so it’s easier just to watch everyone that’s not on your side. And you can’t get away from generalizing with any ease, its how the brain has learned to process information, you generalize to make it easier on the brain. If you don’t want to generalize it takes a lot of work to do because you go against your own human nature.
And most people don’t see killing as just a 9 to 5, they have to have some type of motivation in order to feel what they are doing is right and that they are killing for a good reason. A lot of people just can’t kill someone because it’s their job and it’s what they do.
My question is could anyone here stand in front of someone they didn’t know and pull the trigger because someone with the proper authority tells them to, or would it be easier to pull the trigger if you knew this guy was a serial child molester?
Just for reference,
Soldier = Army
Marine = Marines
Marines are not soldiers, they are Marines.
Charlie Manson was not ordered by our government to go kill people over in a foreign country, our military is. Charlie Manson took those actions on his own orders.
Hopefully this helps.
June 19th, 2006 at 6:10 am
EightyFour wrote:
you just have no experience in the matter.
Ah, but this is where you are wrong. I have all the experience I need to know that a song about killing young girls is almost certainly not funny. (It may be possible, but that song wasn’t it.) My experiences, or lack thereof, of killing people or having people try to kill me do not affect that statement or my understanding of it. As I said, I did find much of the song amusing, even if the recording of it could do little but create more hurt feelings.
But, in the end, this experience argument is bullshit. You don’t have my experiences, either, but that doesn’t mean you do not have meaningful things to discuss dealing with topics of interest to me. Otherwise I could invalidate most arguments I ever get into by stating, “You do not have as much writing and literature experience as I have, therefore you are unsuited to use the same words I do.”
Just for reference,
I have a great reference, thanks.
In other words, “soldier” is also a generic term for people serving in the armed forces. That is the meaning which I used in my previous post. I didn’t use jargon because I was addressing a general audience.
Perhaps the dictionary doesn’t have sufficient experience to understand the meaning of words?
Charlie Manson was not ordered by our government to go kill people over in a foreign country, our military is.
Our military has been ordered over to Iraq to kill young children, as described in that song? Wow, the media really has been asleep at the wheel if those are the standing orders and so few people know it.
The unfortunate reality is that soldiers (or marines, even) who purposefully kill civilians are taking those actions on their own orders in most cases. And, they tarnish the reputation of the military forces protecting my country; the military that many of my family and friends served in, and that I actually would like to take some pride in.
June 19th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
OK I don’t have sound at work, and reading the lyrics I pretty well thought Psychochild hit the nail on the head before he got so defensive. After having gotten home and watching the clip and hearing the song I have to give the guy a pass. I don’t have an issue with it. Honestly if you’re not out there in the desert being shot at by the people you are supposed to be helping, you don’t get to tell him he can’t sing that song for his friends. Posting it to the web was stupid, but I doubt he had a hand in that.
I’m farther left of center than most these days, and I see very few people in Washington of either party who represent my views about how I think we in America should behave in the world and towards eachother here at home. I thought the war was a mistake in the first place, and that was when Colin Powell had me nearly convinced that Sadam Hussein had WMD and was consorting with Al’ Qeida. That neither charge turned out to be true just makes me believe the Administration are all liars and criminals rather than just fools. Having said that, we are there. We have boys on the ground who are doing their best for us under shitty conditions and under extremely poor leadership from the top. That boys song is nothing compared to all the other shit we’ve brought with us to that country. It doesn’t even hit the radar screen when compared with the lies and the arrogance and the complete incompetence that Administration in Washington have brought to the table. Just leave him the hell alone and make some noise about some real issues.