« A New Christmas Tradition | Main | Romney's Lafferism » Christmas In Falluja25 Dec 2007 11:47 pm Annoyed by the incredibly horrible "Citizen Soldier" recruiting ad / song / music video that plays in many movie theaters these days? Well, never fear, Brian Beutler's identified the antidote: "The music's equally terrible (possibly worse?) but the message is deeply anti-war." Yep, that really sucks. Comments (19)
That was harrowing. Now I need an antidote to your antidote. Seriously, Rage Against the Machine just reunited earlier this year. How can we be so hard up for anti-war anthems that we're turning to freakin' Billy Joel? http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jz8wU9DdbqU 
I wish we could get out of Iraq ASAP. Still, some rhetoric I hear from the anti-war camp makes me cringe. The image of the US going to Iraq as crusaders is deeply offensive in the Muslim community. For a song to proclaim that the war was a crusade to recapture the Holy Land is not productive. I believe even anti-war songs must at least attempt to appeal to the sensibilities of the Muslim community.
There is a long tradition of poor anti-war songs. These two Dewey Cox youtube clips are hilarious, and help show why protest songs are typically awful: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_t8i7-17goY http://youtube.com/watch?v=h5fZWB2bh68
Even worse, Citizen Soldier is played just as LOUD as the movie previews.
I love how in the recruiting ad for the national guard, they talk about things like hurricane relief. Can you be more lacking in self-awareness?
thehova, those were fucking great. He plays up his lack of self-awareness so well. The movie better be good.
The only good new anti-war song I've heard is Tom Waits' "The Day After Tomorrow."
I have to say, as an officer in the Army Reserve, "Citizen Soldier" is a song I can really appreciate, and one that reminds me of the goals and purposes of the Reserve/Guard from the time when I first signed up. Its bittersweet to see it blatantly propagandized, and the near-lie it tells, since the current administration has chosen to bastardize those aspects of the military. But in all fairness, while no one wants to be subjected to propaganda in the movie theater, the song is a lot less bad than some of the swill out there today. Its got a decent hook, good back beat.
i wouldn't say the music is terrible - after all it is just a snippet of Nirvana's In Bloom, over and over, with strings on top.
"I believe even anti-war songs must at least attempt to appeal to the sensibilities of the Muslim community." C'mon -- Muslim, Jew or Christer, you're dealing with frenzied religious maniacs. Most Muslims are not anti-war at all, and to appeal to their Bronze age sensibilities is as insane as trying to reason with the Moral Majority American Taliban or the Likud Nazis. The Koran is as full of sickening hate-filled ravings as is the Bible. As long as service in Iraq is voluntary, I say "Fire up more ads!" Let's really clean out the gene pool while we have a chance. Anyone who would voluntarily to to Iraq to fight Bush's war deserves to get his brains splattered all over the sidewalk.
Posted by thehova: Still, some rhetoric I hear from the anti-war camp makes me cringe." Do I smell a concern troll? The whole f*cking point of the rhetoric is to criticize what the right has been saying.
"Citizen Soldier" shamelessly exploits the images of colonial rebels running through the woods with their muskets. If any of these rebels could be resurrected for a day to see what has become of their common dream, they would be gunning for the very government that sponsors this nauseating ad, and they would encourage you to do the same. The fact that the President has sucked the substance and life out of every right those colonial rebels bled for should alone convince any moral individual to take up the gun and move into the streets. Death to tyrants!
A new book shows Saddam did support al Qaeda and the Taliban: 'Both In One Trench: Saddam's Secret Terror Documents' http://www.bothinonetrench.com
"Do I smell a concern troll? The whole f*cking point of the rhetoric is to criticize what the right has been saying."
"Citizen Soldier" shamelessly exploits the images of colonial rebels running through the woods with their muskets. Yeah, aren't we playing the role of the Redcoats these days, including the use of mercenaries?
Musical taste is hard to judge, but for what it's worth, there's a local Boston band with a better song by the same title (at least to my ear) on their myspace page...
The alternative to "Citizen Soldier" happens to be this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RGU_Vv1wgc It's explicitly anti-war and explicitly anti-recruitment - although Andrea has gone to some pains to declare that it's not explicitly against Bush and Blair. She wrote it after reading Sebastien Faulks book about WWI, "Bird Song".
Makhno sounds like me. Not surprising, if his handle refers to Nestor, which I'm sure it does. Not too many anarchists at this blog. We need a couple more to counter the right wing freaks like Al, Fred, and Ford (not that we could ever find an anarchist weird enough to counter Ford - even I don't qualify.)
Comments closed January 08, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
While "Citizen Soldier" is merely an annoying piece of propaganda created by an ad agency to be broadcast to he masses, listening to "Christmas in Fallujah" manages to closely replicate for the listener the experience of being repeatedly hit over the head.
Count your blessings, though-- Billy Joel could have decided to sing it himself.
Posted by Tyro | December 26, 2007 1:16 AM