A really dumb idea.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The cosmic list of spectacularly dumb ideas would be incomplete if it failed to prominently feature conservative talk radio host Mike Church's plan to record and release a song a Marine corporal wrote about killing members of an Iraqi family.

For sheer gutterball tastelessness, Church's timing takes the cake: Military officials are still collecting evidence in an investigation into charges that U.S. Army soldiers brutally raped and murdered an Iraqi teenager and three members of her family.

However the investigation turns out, the facts of the case are such that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the top U.S. military commander in Iraq on Thursday issued a rare joint apology for the atrocity. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey Jr. acknowledged that the horrifying crime, in which at least four American soldiers are suspects, had injured the "Iraqi people as a whole."

The clueless Church is apparently unfazed. Of course, tastelessness and talk radio go together like napalm and the smell of victory, so no one should be surprised that Church thinks now is the perfect time to record a tune that showcases these tender lyrics:

So I grabbed her little sister and

pulled her in front of me.

As the bullets began to fly

The blood sprayed from between

her eyes

And then I laughed maniacally.

The song, "Hadji Girl," hails from a long line of crude, racist, bloodthirsty battlefield ballads that stretches back to the dawn of organized warfare. Such songs are a common and generally harmless way for soldiers and sailors to blow off steam.

Were it not for the Internet, "Hadji Girl" would have remained an inside joke among the relatively small group of Marines in Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167. Undoubtedly, songwriter Cpl. Joshua Belile wishes the four-minute video of his live performance of "Hadji Girl" hadn't left the confines of his squadron. Belile's 15 minutes of fame included way too much attention from Marine Corps brass after the Council on American-Islamic Relations expressed its outrage at the song's racist, sadistic lyrics.

U.S. military officials promptly issued a statement saying that the song was "clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines." Belile also apologized, saying the song was composed as "a joke" and that he didn't intend to offend anyone.

"Hadji" is the slur du jour used by some American troops when referring to Iraqis, Arabs or Muslims. It is derived from the Arabic word for a person who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca. In the argot of the battlefield, hadji joins "gook," "slope," "jap" and other ugly racial epithets as a way of demonizing and humiliating an enemy.

Belile gets big laughs from fellow Marines in the audience when he sings the song's refrain, which parodies the Arabic language that few U.S. troops can understand:

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad

Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah

Hadji girl I can't understand

what you're saying.

And she said

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad

Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah

Hadji girl I love you anyway.

It's easy to overreact to the "Hadji Girl" controversy. The song's racist stereotyping is reprehensible and not something the military can afford to ignore with a "boys will be boys" wink. But there are ample military regulations already on the books prohibiting racist behavior.

The key here is applying common sense and context to the conduct of soldiers in combat. Belile's song was not a battle anthem designed to whip warriors into a killing frenzy. It's clearly a spoof. It isn't polished satire; it's the raw work of an amateur who also happens to be a Marine in a deadly combat zone. He's far less concerned with offending anyone than he is with staying alive. In that regard, Belile's apology should be accepted at face value.

Church, on the other hand, has the benefit of being able to see the bigger picture. Taking a crude song a Marine penned to amuse his buddies on the battlefield and turning it into a commercial recording while real atrocities are being investigated is an act of stunning stupidity and genuine Ugly American callousness.

Some Marines ought to drop buy Church's studio to let him know his idea will not reflect credit on the Corps.