Hadji Girl

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A screenshot from the video recording of Joshua Belile performing Hadji Girl.

"Hadji Girl" is a song by Corporal Joshua Belile of the United States Marine Corps about a fictitious encounter with a family of Iraqi insurgents. A video of Belile performing the song, was posted anonymously on YouTube.com in March 2006. It sparked controversy at a time when Marines were already facing public scrutiny over allegations of a civilian massacre at Haditha. YouTube subsequently removed the video from the site, rejecting any further uploaded versions as violating the site's terms of use.

In the song, the Marine protagonist 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 rifles. The Marine then uses the girl's younger sister as a human shield. The father and brother attack, killing the sister as the marine laughs. 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.^[1]

The video was strongly condemned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who issued a press release which described the song as glorifying violence against civilians and mentioned the cheering of the audience. ^[2] Some bloggers have claimed that CAIR did not accurately represent the content of the song, particularly its ambush theme; however, CAIR did provide a link to the song and features it on their website. Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, stated, "The inappropriate actions of a few individuals should not be allowed to tarnish the reputation of all American military personnel." The song was also condemned by the Marine Corps as "inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines." The Marine Corps has announced an investigation into the incident.^[3]

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.^[4] The performance, according to Belile, was at Al Asad airbase in Iraq, where Belile's helicopter gunship 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 soldiers and military employees to pursue their own interests when not in uniform.

He was later exonerated of all wrong doing.