"Yikes, that'll win friends & influence people."
The Dead Kennedys might not have won friends and influenced people by saying people were "chickenshit conformists like their parents," either. Punk bands that have won friends and influenced people include Green Day.
*-Doug Henwood also wrote:
"Yeah, some of them might (US troops in Iraq) be brainless murderers. But a lot of them are complicated people who find themselves in Iraq because of forces a lot larger than themselves."
The tricky thing about this is it could be said of any soldier, on any side, in any war. Isn't this what folks on trial at Nuremberg said? (Yeah, yeah, Godwin's law).
We support the soldiers who mutiny and don't go to Iraq, right? Not the the ones who participate in -- murder.
Also, you asked, Why not blame civilian bosses? Well, they do deserve blame (and get blamed by this band, incidentally, who I can't speak for); but folks are also complicit in their own oppression. Those who participate can/could be ridiculed and blamed, too.
Emma Goldman: “I insist that not the handful of parasites, but the mass itself is responsible for this horrible state of affairs. It clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify! The moment a protesting voice is raised against the sacredness of capitalistic authority or any other decayed institution. Yet how long would authority and private property exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen?”
-B.