Word: ehtablay
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...Ehtablay, 13, is there only for a refresher course and R. and R. He proudly, ostentatiously skips the new recruits' morning routine of calisthenics and rifle training so he can help the other soldiers with cooking and camp chores. A veteran of three battles, Ehtablay ran away from home to join the army when he was twelve. He had never been to school, and says he always wanted to be a soldier, just like his father and two older brothers. He has only a vague notion of how long the war has been going on, guessing "49 years." He acts...
Before coming to Manerplaw, Ehtablay had never seen television or a movie. He had not even known they existed. At Manerplaw he got his first taste of both. As a special Army Day treat, the recruits are permitted to watch Rambo III on the VCR in the officers' barracks. Ehtablay sits on the floor, hugging his knees, and stares, mouth open, eyes bedazzled, at Sylvester Stallone's leading Afghan freedom fighters in a charge against Soviet tanks...
...Ehtablay, the Karen rebel, and Ducc, the Los Angeles gang member, have nothing in common except their age, and the intoxication and empowerment that came when they first fired a gun. Young boys, be they in Burma or Afghanistan or Northern Ireland or Los Angeles, are drawn to the violence; even the fear, when it distills into adrenaline, carries illicit pleasure. What sets Los Angeles apart from Afghanistan, Burma and Northern Ireland is that gang warfare, with its spoils of drug money, gratifies greed. Money in South Central is the gang warrior's jihad -- a fitting retribution for a materialistic...
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