This is one of the few songs that I've become obsessed with lately, not necessarily because I love it, but because I really don't know how I feel about it. Rise Against's Hero of War tells a tragic story of war from the point of view of an Iraq veteran.
When I first heard the song, I was appalled. Lyrics about pissing in a captive's hands and shooting an innocent girl with a surrender flag don't really shout out the most patriot/pro-military of messages. And so I turned it off.
Then, a few weeks later, I found myself thinking about the the real message, about the turmoil that these men and women must be going through when they come home from a tragic experience.
Hero of War isn't an anti-military song at all, it is just an honest account of a vet struggling with his conscious and the things that he has done. This may not be the most upbeat of songs to be listening to on the 4th of July, but I think that it is an opinion that is too often concealed.
Give it a listen:
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