Count Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong among those not supporting President Bush’s moves toward potential war with Iraq. The singer-guitarist is hoping to parlay his band’s popularity into a petition expressing his opinion and the opinion of others like him.
Speaking on his band’s official website (greenday.com), Armstrong says: “For those of you who are opposed to the war in Iraq, I want to set up a petition on greenday.net to send to George W. Bush strongly urging him to rethink his plans for a military invasion. This petition isn’t only for people who live in America but people all over the world. So, even if you know someone at work or at school who doesn’t even know what Green Day is, tell them to log on to greenday.net, type in their name, and where they’re from. I want to get as many names as possible.”
The members of Green Day have never been shy about their political opinions, especially related to the foreign affairs agenda of the current administration. Upon the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan last fall, the group asked its fans to sends its feelings on the military action to the band’s website.
At that time, drummer Tre Cool revealed: “Maybe I’m just being ignorant and short-sighted, you know, it’s true I’m not running the government, I’m not running the United States. I just don’t think that killing people is a good way to remedy people dying. Martin Luther King Jr. said that you can murder a murderer but you can never murder murder itself.”
Of course, the drummer was speaking against Bush even before he took over the country’s highest office. He revealed during the 2000 election run: “If you’re 18, for Christ’s sake, register and keep George W. bullsh-t out of office because he’s the devil, he’s totally evil, and he needs to be stopped.”
Green Day is currently working on the follow-up to its 2000 release, Warning.
