Statecraft Informer

After serving loyally as guerillas in the CIA’s “Secret War” in Laos during the Vietnam era, hundreds of thousands of Hmong hill people were abandoned in 1975, when the U.S. finally packed up and left southeast Asia.

A large number of Hmong refugees managed to flee to the United States, after the American-backed government in Laos was overthrown by the North Vietnamese-supported Pathet Lao.

However, many thousands were left behind, and sought refuge from the Pathet Lao “death squads” in the dense Laotian jungles. Some slipped into neighboring Thailand.

More than thirty years later, starving, ill-dressed bands of Hmong are running out of jungle in which to hide, thanks largely to regular raids by the Lao army, and encroaching development. Recently, several hundred one-time guerillas, now mostly women and children, chose to surrender to the Lao government.

The Pathet Lao still considers these people “enemy combatants,” and treat them quite cruelly whenever any turn themselves in.

The Thai government refers to the Hmong as “illegal aliens,” and seek to deport them back to Laos, regardless of their impending fate, whenever possible.

Odd to encounter such now-familiar terms applied to these erstwhile, valued U.S. allies during the ongoing “domino” wars of past generations.

Thus has often been, and continues to be, the fate of many former and current U.S. allies, whether borne of Democrat or Republican-controlled agendas.

With the laudable goal of maintaining the “balance of power” in the world, the U.S. has regularly pursued cynically pragmatic policies, usually leading to the decimation of the people and/or cultures we “came to help.”

When we eliminate, or marginalize, honesty, integrity and decency from U.S. policy – foreign or domestic – destruction seems to be the natural result of our original good intentions.

Pure pragmatism, without a heaping helping of humane idealism, is what makes the enemy of our enemy our friend, irrespective of their own behavior. In time, this practice only tends to confirm suspicions about the “real” America.

Many people around the world shrugged off decades of suspicion after the attacks of 2001, and readily began aligning themselves shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. once again.

Only a few years later, as the ongoing incursion in Iraq continues to spin out of control, little of that regard remains intact.

U.S. motives are called into question once again; not by our enemies – and we do have them – or friends alone, but even by our own people.

There has been a growing sense that our ends always justify the means we use, no matter how ignoble, or downright incompetent those means may be.

But the power of capitalism and free markets alone will not continue to propel U.S. interests forward around the world or here at home, unless solidly supported by the essential, reasoned compassion at the heart of this nation.

If might alone made right, bullies would always rule the world.

Underneath the bluster and force, bullies are no more than frightened, ignorant and twisted children.

Their characters have not been tempered by empathy, strengthened through perseverance, molded by decency and cultivated through understanding.

They are often strong and powerful, but hollow at the core.

History shows bullies can reign for a time through the imposition of power, but always, the courage and spirit of human beings yearning to live freely ultimately prevail.

People are perpetually complicated, and the world is full of people.

So far, no bully has ever successfully “simplified” this complicated world. No nation – even possessing the best of intentions – acting like a bully, has likewise ever achieved that end.

Historically, a few people have attempted to simplify this world, with varying degrees of success. They used reason, compassion, moderation, forgiveness, and peaceful means. Many were martyrs. Some are worshipped or idolized to this day.

No nation in recorded history, including the United States, has ever remained committed to applying only those and other corollary means, to achieve its ends.

The United States need not become a martyr to help simplify things on earth, but we cannot succeed by becoming a bully, either, or even “the world’s policeman.”

Effective, pro-active, self-defense should always be among our top priorities. We must not, however, become hollow, sacrificing our core values on the altar of “national security.”

It is those very core values for which we have become, and will remain, these United States of America.