Daniel's Story has Modern Day Similarities

Before I get to the "list", let me say that, in my opinion, this story parallels the war in Iraq from both perspectives. If you look at how the story unfolds, it has so many similarities,
perhaps with the exception of the women's role in the article.

-the Handas are taught from early childhood to hate thier enemies and to prepare themselves for a life of fighting. It makes them heroes. So too are the Muslum extremests taught to hate Americans and die in the name of Alla.
- Daniel's first attempst at quick revenge was a failure, and so the war entered a slower, more complex and costly second phase. Americans were led to believe that the war would be swift and sure, but as it turned out, the situation became more complex, we entered into a more complicated and drawn out war.
-In the three years that it took Daniel to get revenge for one person, his uncle, he had to furnish about three hundred pigs to be slaughtered. That kind of reminds me of how we are sending Americans over to be killed at a largely immense rate to fight an endless line of enemy insurgents.
-the Nipas blocked highways on which supplies were being carried, stopping vehicles and killing men found in the vehicles. Car bombs have played a similar role in killing innocent Iraqi citizens, and Americans as well.
-Daniel admitted "I admit that the New Guinea Highland way to solve the problem posed by killing isn't good....it disturbs our day-to-day life...we are always living in a battlefield...we were trapped in our endless cycles of revenge killings." Until the United States gets out of Iraq, we are guilty of the same tradgedy. Plain and simple.