Hadji_Girl
Hadji Girl
Song about Iraq War
"Hadji Girl" is a song by Corporal Joshua Belile of the United States Marine Corps about a fictitious encounter with a family of Iraqis. A video of Belile performing the song was posted anonymously on YouTube.com in March 2006. It sparked controversy at a time when Marines were facing public scrutiny over the killings in Haditha. YouTube subsequently removed the video from their site, rejecting any further uploaded versions as violating the site's terms of use.
In the song, the Marine protagonist comes under fire and takes cover in a nearby Burger King where he meets an Iraqi girl who convinces him to follow her to her house. After arriving, the Marine is confronted by the Iraqi girl's father and brother who are armed with AK-47 rifles. The Marine then uses the girl's younger sister as a human shield. The father and brother attack, killing the sister, as the Marine laughs maniacally. The Marine then hides behind a TV, returns fire, and kills the father and brother. Cheers and clapping from the unseen audience can be heard in the background of the video.[1]
Belile later said the song was meant only as a joke based on lines from the film Team America: World Police, and apologized to those who were offended by its content.[2] The performance, according to Belile, was at Al Asad airbase in Iraq, where Belile's helicopter gunship unit was posted until March 2006. In the video, Belile is wearing parts of a uniform, although not enough to characterize him as "in uniform" as no nameplate or national markings are visible. The US military, like many others, allows service members and military employees to pursue their own interests when not in uniform.
He was later exonerated of all wrongdoing.