We Don’t Always Get the War We Want

Vice News

29 December, 2012

Rob Swain

Link: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/we-dont-always-get-the-war-we-want

It’s four in the morning on my 38th birthday, and I am staring up at the thatched roof of a small jungle clinic in Karen State of eastern Burma, the home of the world’s longest-running armed conflict—a 63-year civil war between the Burmese army and the ethnic Karen people. The rain has finally ceased and the screeching of two cats fighting has replaced the sounds of the downpour. If I’m lucky, I might get a few more minutes of sleep, once the screaming stops. A senior medic sleeping near me is having a nightmare. After he screams himself awake, he apologizes, gets a drink of water, crawls back under his mosquito net, and begins to pray.