Random, not so serious, yet deadly serious thoughts…

Rock n' Roll Soldiers



This week Crystal put up a blog post about Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. It reminded me of this random Youtube video I saw once and liked, even though I don’t really know why... It shows two GIs in Iraq playing the guitar riffs from Mississippi Queen on their Les Pauls. Not too bad…

On a somewhat related, but more serious theme, see this movie trailer from the documentary Gunner Palace (I recommend it highly), in which “Wilf” plays the Star Spangled Banner on his guitar (a la Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock) against the backdrop of helicopter gunships and a muezzin calling out the evening prayer. Sort of a microcosm of the whole cultural clash going on in Iraq in a nutshell.

It’s important to remember that a lot of these young guys are just normal people with normal lives and normal interests caught up in all of this. Not so different from the rest of us if you really think about it, even though they and their families are going through hell bearing this alone while this administration asks for no sacrifice from the rest of us.

Please see Newsweek this week. The entire issue is devoted to letters home from troops who have lost their lives in Iraq. The War In the Words of the Dead. Very moving and powerful.