Akkam’s Razor

Have you Forgotten? (Lyrics/Video) by Darryl Worley, 2002.

Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a livin' hell
And we vowed to get the ones behind Bin Laden
Have you forgotten

I've been there with the soldiers who've gone away to war
And you can bet that they remember
Just what they're fighting for

Have you forgotten all the people killed
Yeah, some went down like heroes
In that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten

Now, he's taking a different tone:

Now, with Iraq a major issue in next months congressional elections, Worley is back on the charts with a new song, inspired by an Iraq veteran, that tells a quite different story.

It is a tale of a soldier's struggle to adjust to life back home from a difficult war. "I just came back / from a place where they hated me / and everything I stand for," Worley sings in "I Just Came Back (From a War)."

Worley is emphatic that the song is not political. But its downbeat sentiment echoes what polls say are growing doubts over the Iraq war in rural America — a stronghold of country music, Bush conservatism and military patriotism.

"I just think the heart of America is like, 'hey we support the troops, but it's time to get out of there and bring the guys and gals home,'" said Philip Gibbons, assistant program director at radio station WGSQ, "The Country Giant" in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Worley's new song is "kind of a different take on the war," from other country songs, Gibbons said. "It's not like this pound-your-chest kind of thing."

Worley said his inspiration was a U.S. Marine who came home after the intense battle for Falluja. The song's narrator describes "a land where our brothers / are dying for others / who don't even care any more" and says the experience has changed him.

You can listen to I just got back (from a war) at Woorley's MySpace page.