On the dark side

It is not the first time I have seen the temporary graveyard called 'Arlington West' on the beach at Santa Monica. The Sunday routine – I don't know for how long, but at least a few years as I think this might be my third sighting – is to set up a small wooden cross for every US soldier killed overseas – the current count includes Afghanistan and Iraq. People come and write messages to loved ones they have lost in these – some would say senseless – battles initiated by their own government.

There is also a head count of Iraqi deaths and graphic evidence of serious injury to many who survive. This group takes neither national side, they pursue peace.

For no reason other than the senselessness of the deaths and the pathetic looks of the pictures of dead people that some have affixed to the crosses, this morning's brief visit has tears streaming down my face. Young men - more like boys in uniform ad that in a nation that decries the existence of child soldiers in remote countries whose loss is felt by a dozen, maybe two close family members. Pictures of boots, helmets and a US flag draped over a box. Is this all human life is worth in the country that no longer can count in billions the annual cost of this war?

The location of this weekly silent protest is probably perfect. Right below the pier with fun park, placed to eat more at one sitting than the esplanade dwellers might enjoy in a week. There must be a certain kind of blindness in this part of the world.

Just to round off the experience, a copy of the UK Sunday Telegraph (affectionately known as the Torygraph) picked up off a table at the airport tells me that one prisoner in 11 in the UK is an armed forces veteran. Most crimes involve drugs and / or alcohol and violence. Which would you choose? Living out of a shopping cart, sleeping on the esplanade and eating out of rubbish bins or a UK jail term? I guess its not a choice, but a bad luck of the draw that depends on where you happen to have been born.