Teens learn lessons from killing fields (Cambodian genocide survivor Dith Pran supports Iraq war)

Daily Record (Morris County, NJ) ^ | 03/18/04 | Matt Manochio

[shhrubbery!]

RANDOLPH -- The mass graves found after Saddam Hussein was removed from power in Iraq brought back memories of the mass killings in Cambodia for Dith Pran, who has no doubt about whether the United States should have invaded Iraq.

[shhrubbery!]

Dith Pran...has no doubt about whether the United States should have invaded Iraq.

"It reminded me so much that we should have done this earlier," said Pran, whose story was the subject of the movie, "The Killing Fields."

(No word here on what Sydney Schanberg thinks about this topic, however. Wonder if he dares to defy the NYT kultursmog?)

[shhrubbery!]

Many of the students who heard Pran speak weren't even aware of the genocide that occurred in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, overthrew the government, evacuated cities and forced natives into labor camps and collective farms.

That's because the communist genocide in Cambodia is too politically incorrect for the NEA-controlled public schools to teach.

That, and the other aftermath of our intentionally losing the War in Vietnam -- thanks to John F'n Kerry and his ilk.

[facedown]

The movie "The Killing Fields" was good.

The book is better.

[angkor]

It is ironic that Pran sees with moral certainty and clarity how genocide and terror can and must be stopped.

While Kerry and Chomsky sing the same refrains about the war on terrorism that they sang in the 60's and 70's.

It's also worth noting that last year, 89 percent of Vietnamese-American refugees now in America supported the war against Iraq.

[shhrubbery!]

Kerry and Chomsky sing the same refrains about the war on terrorism that they sang in the 60's and 70's

You've come up with a great insight.

The Left (of which Kerry is clearly a part) is downplaying the problem of terrorism, just as they downplayed communism from the '50s through the '90s.

The difference is that the Left doesn't quite dare -- yet -- to ridicule the threat of terrorism, as they were able to do with communism ("a red under every bed," etc.).

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The 61-year-old Cambodian told the harrowing story of his life to Roxbury, West Orange and Randolph high school students Wednesday at Randolph High School.

I fear that if he tried that in East Orange he'd be the subject of a Fatwa. (BTW, my mother was born in East Orange.)

[KantianBurke]

Schanberg was quoted at the beginning the Khmer Rouge takeover that it was "a good thing for Cambodia." Wonder if the jerk ever apologized for such a comment?

[shhrubbery!]

Schanberg was quoted at the beginning the Khmer Rouge takeover that it was "a good thing for Cambodia."

I didn't know that.

Not surprising though - Schanberg's a typical NYT elitist.

The most recent thing I could find by him is some garbage he wrote for the Village Voice wherein he mocks Bush for the war in Iraq.

Nary a mention in that piece about Saddam's massacres.

Schanberg needs to talk to his old buddy (off of whom he made so many bucks and won a Pulitzer), Dith Pran.