SYSTEM OF A DOWN - MALAKIAN: 'I'M PROUD OF MY ANTI-WAR STANCE'

SYSTEM OF A DOWN rocker DARON MALAKIAN is proud his band spoke out against the war in Iraq because so few others had the courage to do the same. The guitarist was personally affected by the war - members of his family were living in Iraq at the time of the US invasion - so he felt compelled to oppose the war publicly. He says, "I don't know if people know but a lot of my family live in Iraq. So I've spent a lot of time trying to get people out. Some people I've got out and some people I haven't. "So for me war is more of a reality than it is for most people. But at the same time I can't help feeling, yeah, a certain amount of pride that we stood up there and said what we did. Lots of band are speaking out against the Iraq situation now, but back then there weren't so many of them. "We kind of felt on our own up there. A lot of people weren't as courageous as we were, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel proud about that."