What American People Don't Understand

The American people don't understand what happens when you've been invaded by the biggest military on the planet and that you have to fight for every single square centimeter of your country in order to protect your land and your loved ones.

This picture was taken during the Vietnam war when the US ordered the bombing of neighboring Cambodia.  In 1969, President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, unleashed B-52 carpet bombing for over fourteen months against a people who still tilled the soil with water buffalo. The 3,500 bombing sorties resulted in 600,000 deaths. The American bombing of Cambodia was a closely guarded secret primarily because the U.S. was not at war with Cambodia.

On Sept. 15, 1970 a victim of American bombing, ethnic Cambodian guerrilla Danh Son Huol, was carried to an improvised operating room in a mangrove swamp on the Ca Mau Peninsula. This scene was an actual medical situation, not a publicity setup. The photographer, however, considered the image unexceptional and never printed it. 

Folks all over the world at this very moment are on the receiving end of US bombs - either dropped by Pentagon forces or their proxies.  People are having to find ways to survive while back here in the good ole USA folks are distracted by sports, raucous presidential election debates, TV, and their daily struggles to keep food on the table.

Maybe someday the American people can feel empathy for those around the world on the receiving end of our war machine.  Maybe the American people will figure out that their lives here would be much easier if we were not spending 55% of every discretionary federal tax dollar on the military industrial complex.  Maybe...

You can see alot more of these photos from the Vietnam war here