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April 17, 2004
IT WASN'T RAP THEY USED
It was '60s and '70s hard rock. Jason Keyser, the AP reporter who filed the news story from Falluja that U.S. troops challenged insurgents to come out and fight by blasting rock music at them, identified AC/DC and Jimi Hendrix as the artists whose music they used.
That at least shows excellent taste and probably that the troops got a kick out of the music themselves, which they wouldn't have got from the< FONT color=#003399> rappers I guessed at. Tactically, though, it makes you wonder why they didn't blast some really lousy beats.
Keyser also points out that American popular music has been weaponized before -- "to help flush out" Manuel Noriega after the December 1989 invasion of Panama, and in 1993 when the FBI "blared progressively more irritating tunes" at the Branch Davidians during a standoff in Waco, Texas.
Posted by at April 17, 2004 04:06 AM