US soldier jailed for Iraq protest rap
p2pnet news view Freedom | Music:- Whether you like it or not, and any way you want to slice it, rap is freedom of expression.
Sometimes it’s song, sometimes it’s blank verse set to rhythm, but it’s always from the heart — unless of course, it’s Big Music Bilge.
US Army soldier Marc Hall, aka hip-hop artist Marc Watercus, was looking forward to the end of his service, next month, “and never going back to Iraq, when commanders decided to ’stop-loss’ him — the policy that allows military officials to keep soldiers longer than their service contracts state,” says AllGov, going on:
“Frustrated by the Army’s decision, Hall recorded — and mailed to his superiors — a song protesting the stop-loss policy, which has forced thousands of troops to serve extra time in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Now he’s in jail and below are the sentiments which landed him there >>>
Like Obama says somebody be held responsible
But some of you all gonna be held in the hospitals, whenever possible…
I’m gonna round up all eventually, easily, walk right up peacefully
And surprise them all
Yes, yes y’all, up against the wall, turn around
I got a motherfuckin’ magazine with 30 rounds, on a three round burst
Ready to fire down … spray and watch the bodies all hit the floor
I bet you don’t stop-loss nobody no more, in your next lifetime of course…
“He was shipped off to jail after talking to to his Ft Stewart, Georgia commander Captain Cross about not wanting to redeploy,” said Courage to Resist last December, stating, ” The military currently intends to keep Marc in pre-trial confinement until they court martial him months from now …”
It suggested “Send letters of protest to Marc’s commanding officer:CPT Cross, Commander, B 2-7 INF BN, Fort Stewart GA 31314.”
Stay tuned.
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for Marc’s Stop Loss MP3.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
AllGov – Army Imprisons Iraq Vet for Hip Hop Song, January 10, 2010
Courage to Resist – Marc Hall jailed for angry ‘Stop-Loss’ Hip Hop song
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January 12th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Once again, if you’re not “with them”, you’re “with the terrorists”, even if you’ve already served your agreed time and killed everybody in front of you they told you to. When are Americans going to wake up?
No matter how many American soldiers die. No matter how many allied soldiers die. No matter how many of “The Enemy of the Month” die. No matter how many civilians die. The war is never over.
It’s never intended to end.
Has nobody learned from Viet Nam??
They’re not fighting for their country, or its freedom, or against “terrorism”. They’re fighting for the War Machine, Big Oil, and the World Bank. No country has declared war on the US, and the lives being lost mean NOTHING to these psycopaths who keep creating the “excuses” to keep this all going…
…in order to enrage people like Marc into volunteering to endanger his young, promising life.
Americans need to wake up and see that. They need to recognize all the War Machine propaganda being continually cranked into their heads, stop believing it, and look at what they’re supporting and everything it’s costing themselves, and the rest of the planet.
I say “Americans” because it starts with America. All the other countries supplying military support to these efforts also need to wake up. Canadians, though more of them do see what’s going on, need to wake up as well and get Parliament to stop supporting the US. Our government is guilty of knowing the lie and letting it be told.
It’s all based on complete lies, and that’s the really sad part that runs through my head every time another young Canadian soldier is being brought down our “Highway of Heroes” in a coffin. Now, I have to wonder how many of the dead had, like Marc, served their time and were eligible to go home, but denied that right.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I hate America’s involvement in Iraq, I think Bush was an idiot for going there, and stop loss sucks. Having said all that, I can’t feel bad for this guy. Those lyrics are very threatening, and he sent them to his superiors. Even threatening to punch a superior can land you in big trouble in the military, these are his lyrics:
“Ready to fire down … spray and watch the bodies all hit the floor
I bet you don’t stop-loss nobody no more, in your next lifetime of course…”
He’ll be lucky if he’s not court martialed and sent to club Fed.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
It’s clearly the gov shutting this guy up who is bringing attention to their stop-loss policy.
Nothing more.
We have all heard worse lyrics in songs. This is pale and he is a political prisoner.
Amnesty international should be up their ass.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
The bottom line is, Marc was entitled to go home.
He served his time, and they denied him his right.
I’m sure at that point any one of us would be feeling pretty cynical about the whole thing. Regardless of what he did, they damned well know what they’re doing to him, and how it could encourage him to retaliate.
The fact of the matter is, anyone who volunteers for service is supposed to command some respect for that (you’re “fighting for your country, your freedom,” whatever). Instead, his service becomes a “non-issue” and he gets thrown in the brig for reacting to his rights being denied.
Is this the “American freedom” he went over there to “fight for”??
January 12th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
… and these political prisoners who are feeling their US home to come to Canada are being deported by Harper’s gov.
Sweet deal!
January 12th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
All I can tell you is I know people who have been in the military and the service makes it very clear you do NOT have the same rights as a civilian! Someone told me he was informed that if he got a sunburn on leave they could charge him with damaging government property! You can’t even be disrespectful to superiors, threatening to murder them because you are angry about ANYTHING, no matter how wrong it is, is going to bring a shitstorm down on your head. If the only thing he said in his rap lyrics were that stop loss was unfair and he hated being in Iraq I doubt much of anything would have been done, or at most a minor inquiry. This is a good lesson for anyone thinking of joining the service, if you don’t like the idea that your freedoms will be severely curtailed in some areas, don’t join. These days they most assuredly ARE going to stop loss you and it won’t be for an extended stay in Hawaii, you will be stuck in some shit hole like Iraq or Afghanistan.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
“…if you don’t like the idea that your freedoms will be severely curtailed in some areas, don’t join.”
Exactly!
And, the other idea they should be concerned about is, how taking away freedoms (either at home or on the battlefield) is a piss-poor way of “protecting” anything!!
January 12th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
When you join the military, you lose you free will. Your thinking is done for you, and you give up the right to your opinion. This guy should have known that before he signed up in the first place.
January 12th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
RadialSkid said
“When you join the military, you lose you free will. Your thinking is done for you, and you give up the right to your opinion. This guy should have known that before he signed up in the first place.”
Monkey D. Luffy said:
This is a good lesson for anyone thinking of joining the service, if you don’t like the idea that your freedoms will be severely curtailed in some areas, don’t join.
1. Who cares. Its a song. A political song.
2. The policy preventing people who have done their time is a slap in the face for all those who put their life on the line. Why shouldn’t some bureaucratic policy preventing them from leaving when their due time is up not be the subject of some hatered in a song (if it was indeed hatred other than just words).
Throw fucking obama there, let this kid come home. He did his time.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
This guy was an idiot. He basically used a rap “song” to make death threats against his superior officers. He deserves at least a month in jail just for the piss-poor grammar…
January 12th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
This is completely biased. The person in question sung multiple songs about assaulting his senior leadership. I am in the military and everyone in the military knows that you give up many of your freedoms to serve your country. As for the stop loss thing, it is part of the contract. If you sign up for 4 years in the service, you are also signing up for 4 years inactive guard where they can be called up to serve again. If he had read the contract, he would have realized that.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
“If you sign up for 4 years in the service, you are also signing up for 4 years inactive guard where they can be called up to serve again. If he had read the contract, he would have realized that.”
Has the same flavour of a Bell Canada contract.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
lol
January 12th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
The recruiters nearly always lie, telling potential recruits things like “it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever send you to Iraq” or that it would be unlikely to be recalled after their term is up — when in fact the complete opposite is true. Most recruits are young, idealistic, and trust authority, so they’ll believe anything the recruiters say.
What these soldiers are angry about is all the lies they were told. At least this guy was open and honest about his feelings. No telling how many others keep quiet and act out their frustrations by “fragging” their commanders on the battlefield.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I hated Bush, having stated that I think the media really is biased. Under Bush there were many news reports about Iraq, and stop loss was mentioned in more than one once it started being implemented. Now Obama is in, we are STILL in Iraq (where are all the reporters asking HIM when we are going to leave), stop loss is still going on and I don’t hear a peep from the media. I guess guys like Chris Matthews, who said he got a “tingle” down his leg thinking about Obama are too busy wishing they could have a homosexual affair with him to ask any tough questions. Jon is right to call them the lamescream media, they are lame, in every sense of the word.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Why are people focusing on the military?
Song/rap/poem/painting/whatever… those are death threats, no jest can be detected.
Whether you say those words to your military superior, neighbour, manager at Tim Hortons, a police officer, or some kid in the school yard, it is a death threat and illegal.
Section 216.4 a) of the Criminal Code of Canada says that such threats are punishable by two to five years in prison, just for a threat!
This isn’t a freedom of speech issue either!
This was someone pissed off who should have ranted and raved to friends and then tried to create some logical argument for his superiors to reconsider sending him back to Iraq.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:21 am
“Song/rap/poem/painting/whatever… those are death threats, no jest can be detected.”
ah puh-lease. Its a song, just like “cop killer” was years ago.
Was the rapper/artist put away in jail for that? No. It increased sales when the police complained.
January 13th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
“The bottom line is, Marc was entitled to go home. He served his time, and they denied him his right.” – The army didn’t deny him anything. He should have read his enlistment contract. The army has the legal and contractual right to extend his time even if he doesn’t want to be extended. Like it or not, its not just policy, its contract law.
“he is a political prisoner” – Threatening the life of your superiors (which is what those lyrics are about) is not political, its criminal. He wasn’t arrested for not wanting to deploy. He was arrested for threatening the lives of military officers.
“the military and the service makes it very clear you do NOT have the same rights as a civilian” – Very true. When I was in the army, I had a First Sergeant that would say “we defend democracy, we don’t practice it”. For all those complaining about free speech rights, this guy gave up those rights when he voluntarily signed his name on the dotted line. He’s not a civilian, he’s government property.
“The recruiters nearly always lie…What these soldiers are angry about is all the lies they were told” – So you make it a habit to sign contracts without reading them?
“This isn’t a freedom of speech issue either!” – Exactly, threatening someone’s life has never been protected by free speech.
January 13th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
oh sheez. What a shill.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
“oh sheez. What a shill.”
Way to add something constructive to the discussion. Keep up the good work.
January 14th, 2010 at 10:41 am
@ Devil’s Advocate Says:
Shut your mouth HIPPIE
You sound like antiwar hippies Cindy Sheenan Code Stinko and Moveon.org.
People like you should be imprisioned for SEDITION.
As usual antiwar hippies like yourself are always talking shit about things you would never understand…………
January 14th, 2010 at 10:54 am
@ Devil’s Advocate Says:
Shut your mouth HIPPIE
The Us military is an all volunteer force.
The Us Army has not drafted people since 1973.
If you don’t like extended deployments DO NOT ENLIST IN THE MILITARY.
Bringing the draft back would be political suicide.
But on the otherhand it is quite possible the US will go to war with iran over it’s nuke program and it might be a good idea to bring back selective service.
You sound like antiwar hippies Cindy Sheenan Code Stinko and Moveon.org.
People like you should be imprisioned for SEDITION.
As usual antiwar hippies like yourself are always talking shit about things you would never understand…………
As always people like you are always perfectly clueless.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
^^
“antiwar hippies”
“sedition”
(’Nuf said!)
Holy shit! LMAO!!
Too f$%’n much!
[Vancome Lady]
“Okay, bye, bye… Thanks for playin’, eh!… Bye, bye!… La-la-la-la-la-la…”
January 18th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Now in all respects I hate the military. My brother-in-law is in the military and he and his family constantly have to move around because he’s commanded to by his superiors. They keep sending him over to Iraq and I get scared because one of these days he might not come back.
This guy was obviously trying to make a point about how stupid stop loss is, so I feel sorry for him. Plus I hate war. It’s pointless and over glorified. And don’t give me that bullcrap about ‘how it’s necessary to defend our freedom’ because it’s an outdated excuse that has worn out its welcome with me. Everyone’s been forcefed this shit and now some of us are tired of it.
January 18th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Reader’s Write Says:
January 13th, 2010 at 10:21 am
“Song/rap/poem/painting/whatever… those are death threats, no jest can be detected.”
ah puh-lease. Its a song, just like “cop killer” was years ago.
Was the rapper/artist put away in jail for that? No. It increased sales when the police complained.
Dude, this is totally different. Ice-T didn’t send his music to one police department with names addressed on it, like the soldier did to his superiors. When you direct something at someone, that changes the context significantly.
If this guy were to simply release his song out there to the world, odds are slim he would be charged and jailed. Very slim. But sending this directly to his superiors implies (especially in a court of law) it was directly specifically at his superiors and thus is a threat!
January 19th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
“My brother-in-law is in the military and he and his family constantly have to move around because he’s commanded to by his superiors.”
That’s the military. If he didn’t want that lifestyle, then he shouldn’t have enlisted.