Soldiers with Green Cards

During the nineties, when I was studying and working in America, the country had not yet experienced a serious, ongoing war.

It was after the first Gulf operation. 

There had been no front-line warfare.

The number of lost soldiers was very low.

Therefore, life was good.

However, when I visited years later, the situation had changed.

At one point, gasoline prices had risen significantly, roads had deteriorated, and bridges were suddenly collapsing.

At airports, I was seeing toothless redneck Americans, Hispanics, and Black people waiting for their loved ones returning from war.

During my travels, I had also witnessed vast, endless cemeteries.

Cemeteries where thousands of soldiers lie, with crosses at their heads.

There were so many tombstones marked with crosses.

The war economy had broken America's back.

Perhaps that is why they had taken a break from war.

Now they have started fighting again.

Their air force and smart bombs are much more powerful and effective than they were 20 years ago.

The ground forces are as well.

In particular, the promise of a Green Card, the first step toward citizenship, serves as the most important sweet but poisonous apple in finding soldiers.

The residence permit and the American Dream it promises along with the Green Card make it very easy for America to find soldiers.

Even though there is no strong sense of patriotism or the status of martyrdom as we have, it is quite skilled at bringing its rivals to their knees.

The fact that it hanged Saddam, the president of the Iraq it occupied, in Baghdad on a holiday morning, and that it could snatch Maduro from his bed, is certainly concerning.

Surely, a brave soul will eventually teach America a lesson, but there is no candidate on the horizon.

As long as the Green Card, which I love so much, has plenty of takers, it seems there won't be a candidate, as I have even witnessed big-name professors from countries like ours applying for Green Cards.