The Sad Irony of War

I am a headline reader. I also follow the war we are waging pretty closely. I am a supporter for the current war. Why? Basically, if we don't fight it, we will have Hamas and Osama Bin Laden blowing up buildings and fighting their war on our soil. No thanks.

Two sad, yet honoring, headlines caught my eye this weekend. The irony of the two is almost uncanny.

Dith Pran

First, the death of Dith Pran. He died over the weekend of pancreatic cancer. For anyone who is much younger than me, you may not know who this incredibly brave and amazing man was. He was a Cambodia man who survived the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. One step better, he coined the term "Killing Fields". Again, if you are much younger than me (I was born when the Vietnam war was at it's peak), you may not even know what that means.

Quick summarizing history. When America pulled out of the Vietnam war, the war really wasn't over. Pol Pot, a sick dictator, pulled his army in the chaos of an unstable country, the Khmer Rouge, into Cambodia and started killing anyone who might disagree with his regime. He wanted the country to go back to it's original agrarian society. So if you were educated at all, you were killed. If you appeared educated, you were systematically killed. If you wore eyeglasses and looked educated, you were killed. It was horrifying.

As America was pulling out, Dith Pran was an interpreter for New York Times journalist, Sydney Schanberg. The Americans could pull out, Dith could not. Dith survived four concentration type of camps and was found by his good friend, Sydney Schanberg, four years later. The movie "The Killing Fields" is based upon his story. I think all of us need to see this movie, because it speaks to the war situation we are in today, and I'll wrap this post up with that.

Click here for a mini clip of his last interview from his death bed. It is very nicely done.

You can't talk about Dith Pran without talking about Haing Ngor. The incredibly special thing about that movie is the actor who portrayed Dith Pran was also a survivor of the Killing Fields-- Haing Ngor. Haing was an educated doctor in Cambodia, and he also survived the Killing Fields. If you watch the movie closely, you will notice he is missing a pinky finger. He lost that while being tortured. He was an educated medical doctor that watched his wife die during childbirth in a concentration camp. She was in labor and needed a C-section. But if he performed it on her, in appalling conditions, he would have revealed he was a doctor and he would have lost his life as well. Haing survived the killing fields by pretending to be a farmer and acting uneducated.

Mr. Ngor, an untrained actor, won an Oscar for his performance. I think he was incredibly brave for agreeing to act in this movie. I am sure he ran into a few ghosts from his experience doing it.

Haing S. Ngor

Tragically, Mr. Ngor was murdered outside of his apartment in Los Angeles in 1996. There has been all kinds of speculation as to whether that was a botched robbery all the way to some kind of conspiracy. One mystery surrounding his death, he had a locket with his deceased wife's picture. He carried it under his clothing out of sight. That locket has never been recovered from the crime. Tragic. He could survive the Killing Fields of Pol Pot, but not the streets of America.

Dith Pran said of Haing Ngor, "He is like a twin with me...He is like a co-messenger and right now I am alone." (CNN, February 27, 1996)

I honor these two men for keeping the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge alive. We will repeat history if we don't learn from it. Please take a moment and put "The Killing Fields" on the list of movies you need to see.

What else was on the news this weekend? Can we remember the name Keith Matthew Maupin? He is the young 20 year old man who was caught in the beginning of the current war on terror. Five years ago, that was when Bin Laden would kidnap anyone who looked American and put horrifying videos of them on the web. There was a video put out on the web of Mr. Maupin surrounded by a lot of masked men with guns. He was never heard from or about since.

Until this weekend. It is confirmed, his remains have been found. Click here for the article on that. I have been praying and hoping this young man would come home walking on two feet. He will be brought home carried by his comrades. I am so thankful he has been found, but wish it could have been different.

Keith Matthew Maupin

Why are these stories connected? I will keep it simple. Once America pulled out from Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge was ready to pull in it's regime and the killing fields began and lasted for four years. Two million citizens of Cambodia (a country of seven million at the time) were executed. If we pull out right now, on the drop of a dime, from Iraq, I believe and know that Muqtada al-Sadr is just waiting to make sure anyone who objects to his planned regime isn't heard. His brutality during this war should only warn us as to what he is capable of after the war. And that is on his own soil. I am sure airplanes in buildings on American soil seem like nothing to him. Remember, we will repeat history if we don't learn from it.

I dedicate this post to these three men. They have all shown their American patriotism in brave and amazing ways--and even with their life. They have also fought for the freedoms and lives of others in the face of horror. They have fought against some of the world's worst dictator's, and stood for human rights, not just American rights. They stood against evil and won. I honor them.

UPDATE: A good friend of mine who is an avid reader of my blog reminded me of something I have meant to post for a long time. There is a great website out there that will take your special message that you submit to them for a soldier of ours overseas, and deliver it to them. It is absolutely free, takes very little time, and definitely gives our guys and gals the morale boost they need. Here is the website: www.letssaythanks.com. Please take a moment and fill one out today, and make it part of your weekly routine to send a few more. What a blessing to our troops!