One e-mail:
I, too, am a former Marine, and I think your other former Marine is wrong. He should watch the video, it’s actually pretty funny, and was obviously meant as a joke. The song was performed by Cpl Belile on base, apparently in Iraq, in front of other Marines, who, judging by their enthusiastic reaction, loved the song. The “Dirka Dirka, Mohammed Jihad” chorus is still running through my head. My take is that someone else videotaped it and put it on INTERNETS, although I could be wrong.I think it’s a terrible shame how the Marine brass is rolling over on this and a host of other issues, all in the name of PR. Instead of defending our men in a combat zone, they are selling Marines out, from Lt Pantano, to Cpl Belile.Also note that there are a ton of exceptions allowing Marines to wear cammies off base (going to a bank, picking up childcare supplies, drycleaners, getting your car fixed, etc.).
And another:
While I am sure you don’t want a back and forth I must comment on my brother Marine’s view regarding Cpl Belile’s song. This tape was done by in Iraq (according to M. Malkin’s “Hot Air”) and it appears to be shot by an amateur videographer. It, the tape, was exposed to the world wide public via Al Gore’s invention. I would venture to say that Cpl Belile meant to entertain his comrades and not begin this sort of brouhaha.
As to the Corps’s love affair with the media, if the pantywaists who inhabit the PAO at HQMC think that throwing this one Corporal under the bus will sate the appetite of the Islamist symp CAIR they are sorely mistaken in the measure of their opponents.
I hope that this type of failure of intelligence is not rampant at HQMC. If it is the CIA will be well supplied with former Marine officers to screw the pooch well into the future. [Who else but a Marine would use such a phrase?]