HispanicVista Columnists
Bush’s War on Terror: Immigrants Both Soldiers and Targets
- By Roberto Lovato
- New America Media
- Jan 24, 2007
Just three hours before President Bush delivered his State of the
Union speech, my nephew, Eric, a former undocumented Salvadoran
immigrant who is now stationed with the National Guard near the
Afghan-Pakistani border, wrote me an email in Spanish. “A suicide
bomber blew himself up at our front gate this morning. Ten people
were killed, 15 wounded. I volunteered and helped pick up the dead
and human remains. Esta bien feo esto (this is really ugly).”
I thought of Eric as I listened to President Bush trying to rally
the country around his “new strategy” with words like, “The war on
terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will
continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to
others.”
Eric was born a child of war. I recall him as a boy in tattered
jeans playing with toy guns while slightly older teenagers played
out the latest insurgent and counterinsurgent military strategies
in the jungles and mountains outside his hamlet. In an earlier
phone call, Eric compared their struggle to the war he’s now
fighting. “The Taliban and Al Qaeda fight like the FMLN (the
former guerillas in El Salavador). They strike for a time and then
you don’t see them for a long time until the next attack. It heats
up and then it cools off.” I’ve interviewed top strategists at
West Point – those who now guide Eric and other solders in the
“new strategy” confirm Eric’s insight.
When Bush tells us he will continue to prepare the country for
what was going to be a “long war” -remember how the invasion of
Afghanistan was first called “Operation Infinite Justice" before
being renamed “Operation Enduring Freedom"? - I worry about Eric’s
son, who is not doing so well in his elementary school. Little
Juan plays with toy guns and goes to a poorly-funded public school
whose administrators are required to give military recruiters
students’ names, phone numbers and other personal information
under the No Child Left Behind Act requirements.
In his speech, Bush framed comprehensive immigration reform as a
national security issue, one requiring policies that leave “border
agents free to chase down drug smugglers and criminals and
terrorists.” If the “war on terror” lasts as long as Bush said it
will, his message tells immigrant families like ours that the war
on immigration will also last for generations to come.
When I mentioned to Eric that Bush would be talking about
immigration during the speech, he told me, “I don’t like to talk
about politics, Tío.” After I told him I understood, he did,
however, tell me, “They (the National Guard) asked me if I want to
go protect the border after I get back.” “What do you think? You
gonna do it?” I asked. He remained silent, as if weighing his
words for an audience larger than just me.
We went on to talk about bringing back beautiful Afghan rugs for
my folks’ anniversary and going to dance salsa when he next visits
me in New York. From the sound of his voice, he seemed to be
struggling to come to grips with how war has shaped his short life
in so many different ways. “You know what?” he confided as we said
our “hasta pronto” goodbyes, “there’s no way I’m going to the
(U.S.–Mexico) border.” Before I could ask him if it had anything
to do with Bush, immigration, the war and the like, he said, “All
that’s political bullshit.”
E-mail: Robvato@aol.com