Collateral Damage

I just had an interesting conversation with a young college student here in Hong Kong. It started simple enough, “you sure are tall, you must be 1.9m tall, are you an American?” (1.88m actually, and yes I am an American.) Then it took an unexpected twist, “are you in the Army” he asked. I told him I was not and he was most disappointed. I found this to be odd, so I inquired further. He went on to inquire about the differences between the M-16 and the AK-47. This did not surprise me all together as there are a number of Hong Kong residents that are into guns, some hobbyists will even buy elaborate model gun kits that look identical to the real thing, and if they are really into guns they will cross the border into mainland China and practice firing the real thing at a firing range. Where things started getting more complex was when he started asking about a TV program that he saw on “The History Channel” that reenacted an event in Iraq where an American soldier killed an Iraqi civilian in cold blood. The student could not believe it to be the truth. He went on to explain that this was different from all he knew about America and all the war movies he had seen. I was momentarily taken back by his naivety, but then again how would he know any better. 

He wondered how this could possibly happen and I tried to answer his questions as frankly as possible and to explain the idea of “collateral damage” and how war is an evil that kills the innocent along with the guilty. Surely there are many steps taken to reduce civilian casualties, but mistakes happen and with so many American soldiers there are sure to be a handful that would kill civilians indiscriminately. There are strict rules of engagement, but as with any rule, there are some that will break that rule. At first I did not realize that he held the US military in such high regard, and he was truly crestfallen when I confirmed what was shown on The History Channel.

I felt a little guilty to burst his bubble, but he is old enough and would find the answers he was looking for one way or another. Our conversation was cut short when he received a call, otherwise I would have encouraged him to do more research in the matter, to find out for himself, but from what I could tell he will do so anywise.

I have seen people like this in mainland China as well as Hong Kong, the young generation does look up to America to a great extent, neither adults nor their education tells them otherwise, despite what many in America might think. Most of what they know comes from Hollywood movies that have been “censored” so they only see the “bad guy” get killed, never the innocent. The truth can be a terrifying thing…