Soldiers get creative and cause a stir
A group of soldiers in Afghanistan spent their downtime doing what a lot of American young people do – they created their own version of a music video to a popular song. In this case, the soldiers created a video to Lady Gaga's song, "Telephone," which they posted to YouTube. The video quickly went viral.
The video has been viewed more than 5.4 million times, and has spawned copycats created by troops in other countries. An Israeli group of soldiers danced to Ke$ha's song, "Tik Tok" (nearly 1.2 million views), and a group of Palestinian soldiers hammed it up to Lady Gaga (28,079 views). But this musical way of spending time has caused debate in military circles.
Back in the day, soldiers spent their down time playing cards or board games, or writing letters to family and friends back home. These days, military personnel require entertainment a bit more advanced in order to kill time and blow off steam. There is a lot of down time between actual fights. Add some fatigue to this mixture of boredom and stress, and you've got a volatile situation. Morale has also taken a hit, as soldiers have been told to hold their fire to protect civilians.
Making and posting videos isn't exactly encouraged by the Pentagon, but we can't see the harm. Soldiers need to creatively fill their down time, and this is a harmless way to do it. Stress relievers are critical to keeping morale up and casualties down.
Besides, what would we rather see in the headlines? Tightly-wound soldiers endangering citizens? We think not.
We'll take Lady Gaga any day.