June 22, 2003
I Love the smell of napalm in the morning!
Reuters: 'Apocalypse Now' Music Fires Up U.S. Troops for Raid
U.S. troops psyched up on a bizarre musical reprise from Vietnam war film "Apocalypse Now" before crashing into Iraqi homes to hunt gunmen on Saturday, as Shi'ite Muslims rallied against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.With Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" still ringing in their ears and the clatter of helicopters overhead, soldiers rammed vehicles into metal gates and hundreds of troops raided houses in the western city of Ramadi after sunrise as part of a drive to quell a spate of attacks on U.S. forces.Not quite as deeply sick as showing porn to fighter pilots before sending them on bombing missions. For those who haven't seen Apocalypse Now, here's a description of the scene in question:
In one of the most famous scenes in Apocalypse Now Lt Col Kilgore's [played by Robert Duvall] troops attack a VC village. They have loudspeakers attached to the helicopters and right before the attack they turn them on. As Kilgore says : "We'll come in low, out of the rising sun, and about a mile out, we'll put on the music... Yeah, I use Wagner -- scares the hell out of the slopes! My boys love it !" The song is of course "The Ride of the Valkyries", from Wagner's opera Die Walküre.Strange that the army of liberation would make a direct reference to "freaking out" Vietnamese civilians.