Youth in Asia

--Vietnamese street children,
fr. collection of RAW

The corruption of the people
is the key to the mastery of Rome
--Allen Bloom on Julius Ceaser

kid he says you have
seen better days i can
tell that from looking at you thanks
i said what you say is at
least half true i have never
seen any worse ones
--Why Mehitabel Jumped,
Don Marquis
__________________

Let us patrol some hostile terrain and discuss the wars of my lifetime, 1968 to present, using two simple photographs; both sum up the wars in a nutshell.

First look at the photo shot on a Saigon street in 1970, one which still haunts me. See the diseased bodies, filth and hopelessness of these children and ask yourself, "Does it mean a tinker's damn to these kids who controls Vietnam if they cannot get medical intervention? Ditto Detroit and Cleveland, today.

Now look at the cover shot of Noam Chomsky's "Power and Terror". Note the barefoot poverty of the Afghan children and the structure in which they are sheltered, which has a door but no roof, a perfect metaphor for our military efforts: We will kick in their doors, but fail to see the lack of a roof; what is the use in violating such a structure?

Contrast this lack with the combat dress of the U.S. soldier: He has more combat gear on his body, money-wise, than this Afghan family may see in a lifetime. He has knee pads, but they don't even have shoes. Do they care who controls their country?

The only way those kids will ever see that much money is if we kill their parents and then we buy them off with a cash pay out -- the Ghetto lottery, Aghan-style.

Contrast the female troop eating her ice cream bar with the Vietnam villager of today transporting her home on her back (thanks to reader Deryle). U.S. troops are often cosseted in comparison to the dismal reality of the villagers, regardless of intentions or outcome. The entire question of war is based in poverty, and one cannot fight poverty with a rifle and bayonet.

Imagine yourself an Afghan or Vietnamese parent, helpless in the face of this grinding poverty, looking at a U.S. soldier: What do you see?

It seems that for the last 50 years America has not asked the right questions or made the correct assumptions when conceptualizing the direction of its wars. As immigrants, we should remember that we all came to the U.S. to escape poverty of the body and spirit. When we fight impoverished people believing we are confronting an enemy that can kill our way of life, we are operating from an impoverishment of the spirit.

Operating from the most pragmatic position, we should ask, "What does fighting impoverished people accomplish? What can they gain, and what do we lose?"