"Hadji Girl" is a song by

Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

Joshua Belile of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

about a fictitious encounter with a family of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

is. A video of Belile performing the song was posted anonymously on

YouTube.com YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...

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 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...

rifles. The Marine then uses the girl's younger sister as a

human shield A human shield is a non-combatant (or a group of non-combatants) who either volunteers or is forced to shield a legitimate military target in order to deter the enemy from attacking it. The use of human shields as a resistance measure was popula ...

. 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.''Music Video About Marine Sparks Anger ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

. Accessed June 14, 2006. 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.Mazzolini, Chris
''Humor attempt falls flat''
. The Jacksonville Daily News. Accessed February 16, 2011. The performance, according to Belile, was at

Al Asad Ayn al Asad is an Iraqi Armed Forces base located in Al Anbar Governorate (also called Anbar province) of western Iraq. It was originally known as Qadisiyah Airbase. It was the second largest US military airbase in Iraq during Operation Iraqi ...

airbase in Iraq, where Belile's

helicopter gunship A gunship is a military aircraft armed with heavy aircraft guns, primarily intended for attacking ground targets either as airstrike or as close air support. In modern usage the term "gunship" refers to fixed-wing aircraft having laterally-mo ...

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.

Recording deal

Shortly after the controversy began, many conservative bloggers and radio hosts went to the defense of the Marine: furthermore, talk show host

Mike Church Mike Church (born 1962) is an American radio and internet talk show host, and singer/songwriter. ''The Mike Church Show'' was the first-ever produced talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio (now Sirius XM Radio). Prior to its cancellation in October ...

planned to record and release the song. While Belile was not to be part of the recording originally because of his commitment to the military, Church indicated that he would still receive royalties from sales. Further reports indicated that Cpl. Joshua Belile planned to record Hadji Girl with Hits Music Studios, and the conservative talk program The Mike Church Show planned to be the first to air it, said Jimm Mosher & Alan Grossman, co-owners of the North Carolina studio. These plans were later shelved. Mosher said Belile still plans to record the song. Belile has said he will leave the military when his five-year enlistment ends in October 2007. "We're wanting to record and produce it," Mosher said. "I think it tells a great story.""Producer: Marine shelves Iraq song"
/ref>

References

External links

{{wikiquote, Team America: World Police
"Hadji Girl" video MSNBC article about video"Hadji Girl" song lyrics
*Sheldon Rampton
"Hadji Girl"
June 22, 2006.
"Hadji Girl" song to be recorded

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, July 7, 2006. Songs of the Iraq War Works about the United States Marine Corps