Arresting and troubling piece. Aroused a whole range of emotions and thoughts as I read it. One of the reactions I had was the thought that you don't have to go to Baghdad to see such things. If you keep your eyes open and wander away from the gentrified areas anywhere in the world you will see the cruelty and kindness of people.

America may not have a live war within its borders right now, but I saw enough of human nature and social problems in the 20 years I lived there to convince me there is no place in the world where you can escape what people do, America no exception.

In L.A., as someone who looks Mexican or Arab, I've been thrown up against a police car and very roughly frisked by police just for wandering into the "wrong" neighborhood. I've had teenagers in a car throw full beer cans at my bicycle wheels as I toured the verge of the road, trying to cause me to crash, all the while shouting, "******* Ayrab, get off our road!". I've had a guy stick a pistol in my face while working the night shift in Boston. Another guy broke down my door in my apartment in a fit of drunken rage. I watched a Vietnam vet friend of mine in college seeth about the effects of Agent Orange on him. A Vietnamese refugee room mate revealed how his family had been gunned down by American soldiers before he escaped Viet Nam, and now he was living in the very country that had killed his family. And another time in Boston I watched, helpless, as a police officer beat to a bloody pulp a black man who had just been standing waiting for the street light to change.

The seeds of hatred and war lie within America itself, as it does here in Japan where I live, or Germany where I was born. Saddam was a monster, but Bush is no less... he just stands further back and keeps his hands clean.

As your story intimates, the whole issue is complex and confusing. The more you see, the less you know who is right and who is wrong. But to close your eyes to the truth around you is a crime in itself.