Magnificent Afghanistan: Music Video's 1960's Sentiment Confronts War's Reality

Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your kid come home in a box...

To learn more, visit: JohnnyPunish.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - On December 1st I told our viewers about a new Afghan War protest song under production, based on the catchy lyrics of the Country Joe McDonald song, Vietnam Rag: "Feels Like I'm Fixing to Die" - made famous during Woodstock.

A local friend and contact, Bruce Arnold, had written the new verses based on the famous 60's tune that came to represent a war and the movement that eventually rose against it, hoping that the idea might still hold strength.

And since it was strength he was after, there were few better obvious choices than John Allen, General Manager of the Veterans Today Network, a group that already works very closely with Salem-News.com.

Country Joe McDonald's song and its stark and comical confrontation with death ripped the nation's heart in half in 1969. As the country finds itself increasingly involved in a war highly reminiscent of Vietnam in Afghanistan, both Arnold and Allen, "Johnny Punish" (JohnnyPunish.com) saw the opportunity to harness that energy and try once again to put it to use, to save lives.

Yo,Yo yo
wake up texters, listen in
Uncle Sam's after more boogeymen
Dubya left Barack in a jam
Way over in Afghanistan
So drop dat i-Phone get a gun
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun

And it's one, two, three, four
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man
Next stop Afghanistan

"Magnificient Afghanistan by Johnny Punish, lyrics by Bruce Arnold

And it's five, six, seven, eight
Open up those pearly gates
cause there ain't no need to wonder why
For oil we're all gonna die.

Now
Come McChrystal let's move fast
Your big chance has come at last
Gotta kill all those towel heads
Though muslims aint who we should dread
Our robber barons now they're the ones
Who blew the Towers to kingdom come.

Huh!

Well
Come on Wall Street
Don't move so slow
Since 9-1-1 it's go-go-go.
There's plenty money to be made
Supply both sides with tools of da trade.
Just hope if they grab a bomb,
They drop it on Dick Cheney's lawn

Well
Come on mothers throughout the land
Send your child to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your kid come home in a box.

Wave ba ba ba bye to the bus
Like Strummer said you're one of us
Cold water in your face
Brings to you back to this awful place
Wave bye bye
yeah wave bye bye

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com