Merle Haggard and Jackson Browne...

...both have interesting vids on their home pages.

Now, Merle's Rebuild America First is interesting, because he's a country-western dude not particularly known for his wild liberal leanings, as far as I can discern, at any rate. I don't agree with all of his sentiments--I don't believe that we are the ones who are "worst off" and that other countries should be helping us instead of us helping them, at least not precisely as the song states. We give foreign aid that is largely a form of corporate welfare and is often useless to the recipient countries. And we ARE being supported by other countries in the form of our enormous trade deficit and current accounts deficit that is being financed largely by foreign concerns. And I know enough about the "rebuilding" going on Iraq to know that it has also been a corporate welfare project, which has failed to put Iraqis to work in the reconstruction of their own country and has done little to increase good feelings on the part of the Iraqi people, as it has been part of the selling off of their own country under their very noses.

That said, I think this video is important because I think it shows just how lost this war is from the perspective of the American people. The chorus goes, "Let's get out of Iraq, get back on the track, and rebuild America first."

Merle ends his song by saying "You think I'm blowin' smoke? Boys, it ain't no joke, I make 20 trips a year coast to coast."

Jackson Browne's video Lives in the Balance comes at the same subject from a different angle, and has some incredibly difficult-to-watch footage, but is incredibly powerful, in a heart-wrenching kind of way.