Marine Apologizes, Says Song About Killing Iraqis Was Joke

A Marine corporal seen in a video singing about killing members of an Iraqi family says the song was a joke.

“It’s a song that I made up, and it was nothing more than something supposed to be funny, based off a catchy line of a movie,” Cpl. Joshua Belile said in Wednesday’s Daily News of Jacksonville.

In a four-minute video posted on the Internet called “Hadji Girl,” a singer-guitarist who appears to be a Marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iraqi woman’s family after they confront him with automatic weapons.

Belile, 23, apologized and said the song was not tied in any way to allegations that Marines intentionally killed as many as two dozen unarmed civilians in Haditha last year.

A Marine spokesman had said Tuesday that officers were looking into the matter but had not launched a formal inquiry.

Neither Belile nor officials at his base in Cherry Point, N.C., immediately returned calls Wednesday seeking comment. Neither did officials at Camp Lejeune, the Corps’ major base on the Atlantic Coast.

The song tells of a Marine who falls in love with an Iraqi girl and is attacked by her family when he is taken to meet them. Lyrics include a reference to the Marine using an M-16 to blow the father and brother “to eternity.”

“I think it was a joke that is trying to be taken seriously,” said Belile, who learned the video was on the Internet after he returned from Iraq in March.

Belile said he wrote the song in September while in Iraq. He said his buddies pushed him on stage with his guitar. Someone taped the performance and posted it on the YouTube website.