Arlo Guthrie's song Alice's Restaurant is a satirical comment on the Vietnam War. Guthrie is poking fun at the frustrating contradictions prevalent in United States bureaucracy. In the song, on a Thanksgiving day, he and a friend are caught by police dumping the remains of the meal in an illegal manner and are sent to jail. When Arlo is up for the draft, he is forced to sit on the Group W bench with other serious, hardened criminals, who will not pass for being fit for war, even though they are of a kind that should have no problem fighting with guns and killing others.
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