My contribution to The Fray’s question: “Where have these bookends found you?”. A reflection over what has changed from one Gulf War to the next.
I was never one who embraced change. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, I was enraged. A 14 year old, it was hard enough trying to pass geography at that time without national boundaries changing on you. Watching the news, I couldn’t help but feel angered that the madman of a large country would run over the people of a little country. I was from a little country too, and felt a duty to stand up for the underdog. I was glad the coalition put together by the United Nations stepped in and ended the invasion. I’ll never forgot how amazing a technological wonder those tomahawk cruise missiles were. Able to hit a mailbox from 2000 kilometers away! Even my hero Isaiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons couldn’t shoot a basketball that accurately from the free-throw line. I was convinced that the United States, with its technological prowess, could somehow bomb a building, killing only the Iraqi invaders, while somehow protecting the Kuwaitis from physical harm. Being the better informed among my contemporaries, I found it disturbing that my Muslim Indian friend took offense to my enthusiasm and admiration for the allied forces that had won such an astounding victory. The look on her face still lingers with me even today, and it is only in recent months I fully understood the helplessness and seething indignation she felt that day.
Continue reading Bookends.
