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Read other letters about this article
Even though this song is incredibly insensitive, former posters are right in that it was meant to be consumed only by other soldiers who are dealing every day with the same thing the songwriter is dealing with.
People lumped together in a stressful situation use each other as outlets in ways that seem incomprehensible to a person outside the situation. I know from experience: my fellow volunteers and I made up and laughed at pretty insensitive songs about our host country while in Peace Corps. I'm embarrassed to admit that the songs exist, let alone acknowledge what they said, now that I'm home. But at the time they provided a way for us to vent cultural frusterations (granted in a over-exaggerated way). None of the songs involved blowing people away, but then again we were not there in a combat situation.
However, were those songs to somehow come to light now in a similar manner, I'm sure people would react to their content in the same way they react to this video: shock, shame for our country, embarrassment for the targeted country, and wonder at what exactly is wrong with the people who created it. Not that this isn't a perfectly legitimate reaction, but it then villifies the creators and nullifies any good that they've strived to accomplish, let alone the good that's attempted by their colleagues or even their country.
When something meant for private consumption ends up in a public sphere, its content may not be excusable, but should be understandable.
