November, 2024
One can say that wars have been going on since the beginning of humanity–
wars conducted in self-defense, wars to conquer and expand empires pillaging resources for business interests, and wars with intention to spread ideology. It is amazing how many banks, corporations and even universities- higher institutions of learning, are invested in war for profit.

But silent wars have been ongoing as well and my awakening to this was during my first visit to Phnom Penh in Cambodia in the late 90s. The country was just opening up and yearning to recover after decades of brutal civil war. Hearing stories of the Killing Fields during the Pol Pot era between 1975-1979 could not prepare oneself to be learn more about the actual horrors that took place.
My local guide who showed me around S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng, the former high school which had been converted into a place of torture and killing, was born the same year as I… in 1958. So in 1975 while watching the Fall of Saigon on TV from a comfortable high school life in the US, my Cambodian guide, same age as me, was part of a mass exodus of the population driven out of Phnom Penh, forced to work in the fields… giving up all their belongings with many family members separated. This was part of Pol Pot’s vision to bring the country back to Year Zero- a bizarre vision to create a new agrarian society- imagining an agrarian society that would restore the nation to the glory of Angkor- once the greatest empire in Southeast Asia. Starting with Year Zero with a population brainwashed away from foreign imperial mindsets, anyone who dared to disagree or who were of an educated class, which could simply have been someone who wore glasses- or who was an artist, or a monastic, would be doomed to be killed by the Pol Pot regime.

Growing up during the Vietnam war, the only recollection I had of a place called Cambodia, was when Nixon said on TV that America was “not bombing Cambodia.” Many of us had no idea that US bombs were indeed dropping on eastern Cambodia and its neighbor Laos- where was that? The intent was to target the North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh Trail – with Viet Cong using Cambodia and Laos to infiltrate their troops into US backed South Vietnam. Often these bombs were dropped at random destroying villages resulting in death and injury to innocent local population. Laos became the heaviest bombed nation on earth. From 1963-1973, more than two million tons of cluster bomb ordinance was dropped on Laos- equal to one planeload of bombs every eight minutes…24 hours a day, for nine years. The US backing the Lao royalists, recruited ethnic Hmong highlanders as rebels to help fight the North Vietnamese supporting the Pathet Lao, in a Secret War much of the world knew nothing about. There was no internet – no mobile phones. Local Lao in remote northeast of the country lived in caves setting up communities including hospitals and schools, attempting to plant rice at night, while bombs fell during the day. Often these bombs were dropped randomly over villages if their targets in Vietnam could not be met, sometimes due to poor weather conditions, as planes were not allowed to return to the US bases in Thailand with unused bombs. 30% of these cluster bombs did not explode on impact and years later, over 20,000 people- 40 percent of them children- have been killed or injured by unexploded ordinance in remote Laos.

Back in Cambodia, US bombs dropping on eastern Cambodia, while the US supported the corrupt Prime Minister Lon Nol who abolished the monarchy in 1970, enraged leaders to be like Pol Pot. Later, the insane purge of people under Pol Pot in his vision of Year Zero, resulted in the death of 1.5-2 million… approx 25% of the population. I came to learn of personal stories meeting Arn Chorn Pond, whose father was an opera director before the Khmer Rouge took over. The arts and music were banned. Arn was separated from his family and recruited as a child soldier, often forced to help conduct brutal killings which included cutting out the livers of people who were still alive to feed the Khmer Rouge superiors. Ironically while music was banned, the Khmer Rouge decided to establish a youth music group. Arn knew how to play the flute and started to play for the Khmer Rouge- music that kept him sane living in a nightmare.
In 1979, Vietnam came in to “liberate” Cambodia from Pol Pot occupying the country for the next decade.
Arn managed to survive trekking through jungles and fleeing across the border to Thailand. The outside world was now finding out what horrors the Cambodians went through.

Another story that will touch my heart forever, is from a British-ordained Tibetan nun, Ani Zamba who led a few retreats in Chiang Rai while I lived in Thailand. The story of Ani Zamba is a whole amazing story itself- a brave young woman and former journalist in the UK daring to write about the shady dealings of government, a woman who suffered from spinal disease, surviving numerous surgeries and who managed to find her way overland to India where she found her teacher in Tibetan Buddhism. She ordained as a nun and devoted her life to helping others. Some years later with continued need for medical care, Ani came to Thailand where she ended up serving at a monastery helping people to cope with pain and drug addiction through meditation. Hearing about the exodus of Cambodians fleeing into Thailand, Ani went to the border to see how she could help. Under Khmer Rouge, people had to give up their clothes and could only wear black robes and sandals made from used rubber tires. People crossing the border, thin as sticks, were seeing people in colorful clothing again for the first time in four years. UN agencies had set up camps at the border, distributing food.
When seeing Ani, Cambodians, who did not think monastic life was still in existence, were in awe. And while waiting to collect food for themselves, Cambodians began forming a queue and kneeling down to first offer food to the nun they were now seeing. Ani getting out her alms bowl, was told off by some of the UN officials… saying ” how can you take food from these people who have been starving?”
But Ani insisted it was important for these people to do their own small offering for others first- this was part of their culture for years, lost under the Khmer Rouge.
Ani stuck around the camps and was quite a force fighting the trafficking of children who were quickly offered and shipped off for adoption- sometimes not clear where to. Ani tried to block the quick adoptions as she was concerned that their parents could still be alive somewhere. Ani would blockade cars by lying down in front of them.

Although there are the horror stories of child trafficking, some young people like Arn Chorn Pond ended up adopted into a good family and went to be raised in the US. Arn was one of several adopted into one family and the only one of his group who decided to return to Cambodia to seek out any musicians who survived the Khmer Rouge. He went on to start Cambodian Music Masters Program which has now become the vibrant www.cambodianlivingarts.org

Ani Zamba passed away in 2023 and I imagine she is herself in a better body in her next life.
Here is an interview with Ani:
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-life-story-of-ani-zamba-chozom-part-one-journey-to-india/

Thank goodness for the good stories of good people that come out of the chaos.
But I keep questioning why this cycle of the getting involved in more wars continues.
The end of the World War 2 was a beginning of a new world era with the US acting and seen as the glocal super power. The Vietnam war was about stopping a domino effect of communism spreading throughout Asia. Perhaps at a time justifiable, but one also needs to learn more about how the escalation of the war could have been avoided which led to so much additional suffering. During the Vietnam War, I was too young to be considered for the draft, but I recall the son of our neighbor coming back from Vietnam traumatized and wondering why he was sent to fight there. I will leave people to learn more about the Vietnam War, or the Amercan War as the Vietnamese refer to it, on their own. But in the end, the US could not win the war.
And while America was not the cause of all the atrocities committed, it is rather insane to imagine after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, during the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia- the US as well as the UN actually continued to recognize the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate Cambodian government because the US could not accept Cambodia occupied by Vietnam. The CIA continued to supply arms to Khmer Rouge hiding in the jungles of Thailand to fight the Vietnamese. Most Cambodians today will not look back at an occupation by Vietnam as a good time either, but the US continuing to supply weapons to Khmer Rouge maniacs is also beyond comprehension. The Khmer Rouge was backed by China. The Vietnamese were backed by the Soviets. Nixon ended up making friends with China and when the Soviet Union collapsed, Vietnam could no longer afford to hold on to Cambodia. The play of geopolitics brings the inter-connections together while many innocent are caught in between as pawns.
May the former Indochine countries continue to find their own way to peace and prosperity.
It was interesting to read some time after 9-11, the New York Times Travel section described Vietnam as a vibrant and safe destination to visit, because the communist party had no tolerance for terrorists.

In 1979, the US fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. At first perhaps a noble cause and the Soviets retreated. But later some of those the US supported in Afghanistan turned into the Taliban. After 20 years and a trillion US Dollars spent, the US finally withdrew embarrassingly from Afghanistan allowing the country to fall back into the hands of the Taliban. Imagine leaving over USD 7 billion worth of military equipment behind.

Have we also not learned from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the chaos created there?
I recall when the late US diplomat, Madeleine Albright said that the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children were worth it as “collateral damage” to protect democracy. Well, at least she later apologized for those words!
One needs to question where since World War2, has US intervention in wars anywhere resulted in a better outcome? Perhaps one can say protecting Kuwait from Iraq in the Gulf War worked, but the flip-flopping of supporting dictators like Sadam Hussein whenever it is in best interests, is quite astounding. And look at the chaos created in Libya and that US weapons ended up in the hands of a branch of ISIS in Syria.
How many people actually recall the democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh of Iran was ousted in a US and UK backed coup in 1953 because he wanted to nationalize the oil of his own country?

Sadly we are now facing serious concern with the direction the war in Ukraine could escalate into with the President Biden giving the green light for Ukraine to use long range missilies supplied by the US to strike into Russia, as well as providing more horrific landmines. Can negotiation ever be possible? Or how many thousands more need to die first? Heaven forbid someone who feels he has nothing to loose, decides to push the button to use a nuclear weapon. Noone will win in such a scenario.

These last months have astonished me that democracy today can actually mean the approval to enable and legitimise a genocide. Images of destruction and killing in Gaza is livestreamed and yet so much of the world remains silent. The history of the Israel/Palestine conflict is far more complex than what happened on 07 October. Imagine a nation with the most sophisticated intelligence not knowing there was an attack being planned? There has been conflict for centuries and more needs to be understood about what has been happening since 1948 with the creation of Israel, the forced displacement of so many Palestinians and a continued occupation of lands. More US bombs and funding of billions of dollars will not solve this conflict. Sadly the pain waves of suffering and hatred, in what should be a Holy Land for all faiths, will last for next generations.

It is time to stop the funding of these endless wars. How many more limbs of women and children need to be lost?
Billions of dollars spent on proxy wars which are from people’s taxpayers money are best spent on building peace and well being, and better infrastructure- not to allow politicans to line their pockets with lobbyist money serving donors more than the people they are elected to serve.

We are seeing more and more leaders of this world engaging in crimes against humanity with impunity.
And the UN with 193 Member States continues to function with only 5 members on a “security council” each with veto power to serve their interests. International Tribunals can take decades to finally bring some justice. An example of the Klhmer Rouge tribunal, although many finally felt justice was served, why does it need to take so many years with a cost of over USD 300 million to bring the last three remaining Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.

And what to do when one feels helpless and voiceless?
We must not simply watch wars happening around the world with indifference.
Finding ourselves closer than ever to potential nuclear war, at least we can sign our names and help support the work of:

ICAN- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons:
https://icanw.org

Learn more about:
COPE Laos: helping people with mobility-related disabilities, including UXO survivors, access to prosthetic and orthotic services, allowing them to regain mobility and dignity.
https://copelaos.org/

Halo Trust: Clearing Landmines and Explosives
https://www.halotrust.org/

The Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, bans completely all anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines) around the world.
To date, there are 164 States Parties to the treaty.
35 countries including US, China, India, Pakistan and Russia have not signed the treaty.
https://canadianlandmine.org/the-foundation/the-treaty/

MAG- Mines Advisory Group: Doing whatever it takes to get to a landmine before another child does:
https://www.maginternational.org/

International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition:
https://www.icblcmc.org/

United States Campaign to Ban Landmines:
http://www.banminesusa.org/

May the world awaken to a new generation of leaders empowered to help make the vision for a better world happen. May there be well being and peace for all…something that all people wish for.
War is a Failure of Humanity!