"Believe it or not, I didn't realize it was Christmas until last night,"

Troops: Christmas in Iraq Just Another Day

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_military_christmas_1

BEIJI, Iraq - >>>>Troops woke long before sunrise on a cold, rainy Christmas morning to raid an upscale neighborhood a few miles from their base. In honor of the day, they dubbed the target "Whoville," after the town in the Dr. Seuss book "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade knew they weren't going to be welcome when they arrived in the dead of night. It just made sense to nickname the target after the village raided by Seuss' Grinch on Christmas morning, they said.

"It was appropriate. I did feel like the Grinch," said Pfc. John Parkes, 31, of Cortland, N.Y., a medic in one of several groups called "quick reaction teams" that respond to roadside explosions.


"Believe it or not, I didn't realize it was Christmas until last night," said 1st Sgt. Andre Johnson, 38, of Baton Rouge, La. "It's just another day, man."

Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did
Got what I paid for now
See ya tomorrow, hey Frank can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you?
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English and every thing's broken
And my Stacy's are soaking wet
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

Now the dogs are barking and the taxi cab's parking
A lot they can do for me
I begged you to stab me, you tore my shirt open
And I'm down on my knees tonight
Old Bushmill's I staggered, you buried the dagger
Your silhouette window light
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

Now I lost my Saint Christopher now that I've kissed her
And the one-armed bandit knows
And the maverick Chinaman and the cold-blooded signs
And the girls down by the strip-tease shows
Go, waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

No, I don't want your sympathy
The fugitives say that the streets aren't for dreaming now
Manslaughter dragnets and the ghosts that sell memories
They want a piece of the action anyhow
Go, waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

And you can ask any sailor and the keys from the jailor
And the old men in wheelchairs know
That Matilda's the defendant, she killed about a hundred
And she follows wherever you may go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No primadonna, the perfume is on An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Matilda too

-Tom Waits

My father-in-law played this for his family on Christmas Eve, wounded (shrapnel in the leg that never healed) and heading out the door for his second tour in Vietnam. He said it was about dancing with death. Wendell was a sergeant whose responsibility was to train the young soldiers so that they might return alive and in one piece.

I get the shivers whenever I hear it.

What a chilling interpretation.

he played it on the harmonica, probably harking back to the Austrailian version. I think Waits changed the lyrics and turned it into Tom Traubert's Blues. My wife, and I think her dad, did pick up Wait's version (with the reference to the wounded leg likely a coincidence.) sometime in the late '70's on a local alternative station WHFS. DJ named Weasel played it from time to time. I don't think it was a war song. A shepherd killed himself, I think. Anyway, one of those things . . .

What a coincidence, I actually did some digging a few months ago trying to find out what Waits was really singing about.

There is a lot of speculation but nobody seems to know for sure.

And Tom's not talking.

Now I'll have something else to be reminded of whenever I play it; a good man's willing sacrifice.

he said some guy reminded him that today is christmas.He said he doubts that Christmas will ever be "special" again.We'll see about that when he gets home...