How to breed a terrorist

I was listening to Hail to the Thief again over the last week. A song I had previously passed over caught my ear, and then I listened to it several times in succession. "I Will" written by Thom Yorke. I will include a link at the end.

I'll let his explanation of the song craft the impact it's had on me (source):

The main inspiration for the song seems to be an incident from the first Gulf War. On February 13, 1991 the US military bombed the Amiriyah bomb shelter, at the time a refuge for over 400 people, nearly all women and children. All of them were killed by two precisely directed bombs, resulting in horrific imprints on the walls. When Thom heard about it, the event deeply disturbed him.

Thom: "I had an extremely unhealthy obsession, that ran through the Kid A thing, about the first Gulf War. When they started it up they did that lovely thing of putting the camera on the end of the missile, and you got to see the wonders of modern military technology blow up this bunker. And then sometime afterwards in the back pages it was announced that that bunker was not full of weapons at all, but women and children. And it was actually a bomb shelter. And so everybody...we all got to witness the wonders of modern technology. And it ran through so much stuff for so long for me. I just could not get it out of my head. It was so sick. And so that's where the anger comes from." (XFM interview, spring 2003)

"As a song it's sort of like a love song, but it's also sort of the angriest thing I've ever written as well. That sort of anger, that you can't even begin to express. This thing about 'you can do anything you want to me, but if you come after my family I will kill you.' You know, that sort of thing, which everyone has in them, I think." (official Hail to the Thief interview CD, April 2003)

It is one the artist's jobs to inform the world of their hypocrisies.

I have no doubt that many husbands and sons became bitter and total enemies of the US that day.

"I Will" by Radiohead [youtube]