Son,

The movie “American Gangster’ is based on a true story. The story of heroin being imported into this country from Southeast Asia. The mode of transportation was primarily aboard United States Military aircraft. This was not sanctioned in any way by the U. S. Government – but by individuals in the military serving in the Vietnam War zone.

Our country is presently engaged in a ferocious war in Afghanistan – the country that produces more opium than any other country in the world. To assume that the ‘American Gangster’ story is an anomaly, unique to Vietnam, is naive.

We have seen the disastrous consequence of placing our children soldiers in war zones. We see atrocities of war, perpetrated by American soldiers, nearly every day on the news. This post is not intended to reflect on the soldiers, but rather on the unintended consequences of War.

Most of us are unable to fathom the conflict of morals we place on our soldiers. Moral principles, fundamental to our sanity, are stripped away. Good soldiers do crazy things in foreign war zones. I believe this is a historically accurate statement.

Are we going to see a remake of ‘American Gangster’ in thirty years – retold on the streets of Afghanistan?