The next time Rihanna's played out "Umbrella" comes on, and you are ready to either cover your ears, throw a shoe at your radio, or change the station, stop. Count to 10. And think of the soldiers.

Because, while Rihanna's version of the song is an infectious love ditty, it was actually written with the Iraq war in mind.

"Umbrella" scribe Terius Nash, aka the Dream, wrote it as a wartime lullaby, for his people who are stationed in Iraq. "Emotionally, I was tapped into what the world was goin through - the war. We losin a lot of those people over there. Most of those troops are from Georgia," says the singer / songwriter, who resides in Atlanta. "I have a best friend that was in the Army. I have another friend that was injured. To me, 'Umbrella' meant a lot emotionally about what the country was going though. I don't think the times we're in are really as bad as it was back in the day, but we ain't never seen it before. You can hear somebody tell you but you don't really know how the '60s went down until something pops off and it's like, 'Wow. Can you believe a human being could do that? Yeah, they really could. People have that power to cause harm. I felt like that song had the power to deliver us from some of that."

The song, which I am so over, if you couldn't tell, hasn't really delivered me from anything. Although it has given Rihanna a number 1 hit and an umbrella line, and propelled her to international superstardom. Do I see an Iraq concert in her future?

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