Talk:B.Y.O.B. (song)

i thought it was more like accusing everyone of being a mindless drone, as in a totolitarian nations, not just soldiers.

Not as much soldiers - leaders mostly. It's not about US though, politicians - yeah, but not the nation. The nation doesn't have anything to do with the president's decision (except for the fact that some of us chose the bastard)

Why "Bring Your Own Bombs"?

Why does this page (And also in the tracklist in Mezmerize) merit to be called "B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Bombs)" when "ATWA" or "A.D.D." are just under their acronyms? AFAIK, BYOB with this undertitle have never appeared anywhere official? /Hugoflug 22:58, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Deletion?

I don't think this song is important enough to have a Wikipedia page. It was a minor hit at best, definitely not really that noteworthy. Also, the lyrics picked seem to have been specifically picked out of the song for their POV.

I'm fairly sure that all singles are worthy of articles.. This article may not look like much now, but it's likely to improve in the future. --Dalkaen 05:49, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

Hardly a minor hit, it broke the top 30 of the Billboard 100 and reached the top 5 for both the Mainstream and Modern rock charts. Very impressive for a hard rock act. Pasboudin 20:39, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

Of course you won't get a "neutral point of view" from system lyrics", they are political. System is one of the most politcal bands out there today. So quotes of the lyrics are bound not to be "neutral", our job is to report on thier politics in a netural way. --Notenderwiggin 01:37, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm gonna talk on the section, "Minor hit." It won a Grammy. That means, basically, that it was the biggest hard rock song of 2005. And I agree with Notenderwiggin for the POV. --Gophergun 18:12, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Sending the Poor?

I have to take a couple of assumptions here before I get to the meat of my beef. Assumption 1: In the line, "Why do they always send the poor?" I am assuming "they" means government, if not the U.S. government in particular. Assumption 2: The song is a very thinly disguised protest against the U.S. operations in the Middle East.

Let's look at how "poor" soldiers are. I'll focus on U.S. servicemembers, since I work at a U.S. military facility, and am reasonably familiar with military pay and compensation. Further, we'll look at a typical Army Private, pay grade E-2, with one year's service. It is very unlikely that a new, fresh recruit just out of boot camp would be sent straight into combat operations. So we're looking at a typical 18-19 year old Private, living off base in civilian housing.

The standard monthly pay for an E-2 with 1 years service time is $1,384.50 Multiplied by 12 months gives you $16,661 for a year's worth of service. That's not exactly earning a lot of money, but we're not done yet. Next you add in Housing Allowances. This is $755 a month. Then there is a Subsistence Allowance, $267.18 a month. Add in the base pay together with the two allowances, comes to an income each year of $28,880.16. Know many 19 year old kids that make that kind of money legally?

Now, the song is about sending folks to war. There are further allowances gained when deployed, like Imminent Danger Pay. IDP is currently $225 a month. If you're married, you also qualify for a Family Separation Allowance, $250 a month (we won't include the FSA in this study). Plus, all income earned by enlisted members in a combat area is TAX FREE. Additional money the servicemember gets to take home.

Not including the IDP, the Private gets $28,880.16 in pay for a single year. That's not even the final, bottom line. The Department of Defense then calculates the average citizen's tax burden for $28,880.16, then adds the amount of estimated tax to the Servicemember's earnings, so that the NET pay becomes $28,880.16, making the gross pay $31,044.72. Now consider that servicemembers use commisarry and exchanges on post that have reduced prices on food, goods, and services. Plus members (and their families) get free medical. That's a pretty sweet deal, don't you think?

If you are interested, go to [1], the military compensation website.

U.S. SOLDIERS ARE NOT POOR!!! Keep up the good work, troops. We love you, no matter what geeks like System says! --JRed 18:31, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Well that's exactly the point :) Only people in need would be tempted to kill, enforce authority or even die for that amount of money. It's funny how you couldn't see that you were so far from scoring for your team, which happens to be the US Army, flooding us with income figures here :) And besides, i think it would actually be more poetic if US soldiers were poor, then at least we wouldn't think they were doing it for the money. Oh and yes: Keep up the good work, thats what you are paid for!--Zama Zalotta 20:11, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

I'm going to delete the argument. J rath may have a point, that is arguement, and doesn't neccesarily belong on the main page, or the talk page. The lyrics are as stated, if he wants to state that they are biased and link to sources then fine. There should not be a 4 page reffutal of thier assertionon that the poor fight wars on the talk page. And they don't bother disguising the fact that this is a protest song, or thier politics. --Notenderwiggin 01:37, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Notable Lyrics

I previously changed "we all live in a fascist nation" to "we don't live in a fascist nation." The lyrics were changed back. Please, look at the band's website before you change it. There it even says my lyrics are right. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.152.179.13 (talk • contribs) .

Iraq War?

System of a Down is on record saying that the song was written to question the integrity of wars in general, not necessarily the Iraq War. I changed "Iraq War" to "War", and added that most people interpret the lyrics as protesting the Iraq War in particular. I've also added the interpretation about military recuiting practices, which you will hear a lot of on fan forums. ElijahTheProphet 10:27, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Wha??

"The title is said one time right before the main riff enters."

Am I the only one not hearing this?