"When Johnny come ROLLING home again (IRAQ! IRAQ!)"

[DFW]

link to clip: http://cdbaby.com/cd/freedomtoastrep

I've seen more hate mail from right wing nut cases about this
song than I can remember, so it must have hit home somewhere
(they must hate it when they hear the military-sounding chorus):

When Johnny comes rolling home again, IRAQ, IRAQ!
We know he’ll never roam again, IRAQ, IRAQ!
His legs don’t work, and his shoulder droops.
But that’s OK: we support the troops!
We will all think twice when Johnny comes rolling home.

When our boy comes back broke and bent, IRAQ, IRAQ!
We’ll wonder why he ever went, IRAQ, IRAQ!
Dick Cheney got all his contracts done
And Dubya proved he’s the favorite son
But we’ll all think twice when Johnny comes rolling home.

The White House thinks they did the job IRAQ, IRAQ!
They never heard our Johnny sob, IRAQ, IRAQ!
They never found what they went to find,
And they give no thought to those left behind.
Bush will not be there when Johnny comes rolling home.

We wait for Johnny to arrive, IRAQ, IRAQ!
We know he’s more dead than alive, IRAQ, IRAQ!
He joined to fight for the U S A,
He never thought he’d get tossed away
And we’ll all wake up when Johnny comes rolling home!

[SOUTHERN_BOY]

1. And I have loaded some of those Johnnies

back onto the truck when they OD on purpose and try to leave this life because they left their parts in some country they never heard of before.

I don't think the government keeps stats on suicide attempts. Just ask your local medic.

[DFW]

2. Welcom, fellow Southerner (born in VA, now TX for decades)

Actually stationed overseas or most of that time,
coming at you this afternoon live and in color from
the Rheinland.

No, as you surmised, suicides related to war-sustained
injuries (visible or otherwise) are not recorded as
deaths related to the conflict. DoD is not exactly eager
to augment those statistics, as you can imagine. Not that
our people have suffered any less due to the category of
their injuries.

[Ilsa]

3. Another statistic not kept by the DoD is

the number of assaults and murders of homeless vets. There were a few murders of homeless over the last few years and I wonder how many of them were Vietnam vets who never assimilated back into US society because of untreated PTSD. I know, I know, it's too indirect of a cause of death for the military to follow, but they know it is happening in greater proportion to their soldiers.

RIP, Johnnie.

[irish.lambchop]

4. I downloaded this song to my iPod

it made me cry and am now blaring it on my outdoor speakers - it's playing for all around me who care to listen.

[GliderGuider]

5. K & R

Music will pierce through the cacophony and, one by one, people will suddenly understand what really matters.

[DFW]

6. Hey Lambchop

The rain stopped for a minute here in Germany, so
my wife and I grabbed some air, so sorry about the delay
in answering.

There is an interesting story behind that song. The Freedom
Toast is mostly a political comedy/satire project, and they
almost didn't put that song on their album, as it was such
a departure from the rest of their stuff. They were also a
little apprehensive about the reaction of actual vets who
had been wounded in this, or other, conflicts. So, they ran
it by a friend who had been consigned to a wheelchair since
a VC bomb ended his time of walking on his own two legs. He
told them to go with, absolutely, and only then did they put
it on their CD. They felt strongly enough about it to risk
a break in the funny mood of the rest of the stuff they recorded,
and by the vicious reactions they got from the radical right,
it must have hit home with them as much as it did with you--in
completely opposing ways, of course.

They yelled and screamed, of course, but it's still true:

"Bush will not be there when Johnny comes rolling home."

Play it loud.