Until Someone Like You Bleeds

…any division within ASEAN benefits the USA, and Uncle Sam loves nothing better than any ally of China to be roughed up.

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

On 7/24/25, just hours after conflict erupted between Cambodia and Thailand, a 24-year-old was assaulted in Chanthaburi, 300 miles from the actual fighting. Employed at a slaughterhouse, he was just returning from work when two strangers jumped out of a car to ask if he was Cambodian? When he said yes, they jumped him.

Since Cambodians are generally darker than Thais, they could identify him. Notice how it took two assholes to beat up one unsuspecting dude, but that’s how it usually is. Most men are cowards. The bravest drop bombs on old ladies and babies from 50,000 feet. With its bloody, stinking and exhausting work requiring the strength and stamina of athletes, American slaughterhouses, too, are filled with immigrants.

going from Pong Nam Ron, Thailand towards the Cambodian border on 3/24/18

In 2013, I was stuck at Kansas City’s Greyhound Station due to a snowstorm. Having not bathed for days, I went outside to gently scrub my balls with snow. Back inside, I met a Vietnamese with white GI blood who was returning to his job in Minnesota.

My note from 4/6/13, “Tùng, 43, had been in the US 11 years, and was working as a boner at a pork processing plant in Greenbush, MN, making $16 an hour, for $400 net a week. He had been employed at a beef plant in Sioux City, Iowa, but that place only paid $300 per week. Greenbush is near the Canadian border, and the region is almost entirely white, but 80% of the workers at this pork plant are non-white, with many Africans, Mexicans and Asians, with the Burmese so adept at this grueling work, they’re allowed to chew betel leaves on the job, with trash cans nearby to catch their spittle. Saving what he could from his modest pay, Tùng had returned to Vietnam eight times, with six months his longest stay. Back in tropical Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, he would eat and drink well, and idle his time away, but that too would get tiresome, and his dollars would evaporate, so back to frozen Minnesota he would fly. Recently he passed out at the slaughterhouse and woke up in an emergency room, but since it happened just before he clocked in, it wasn’t considered a work place incident. Tùng spoke wistfully of a fellow Vietnamese who had gotten clipped by a forklift. The lucky man broke his chin, so thereafter was assigned the easiest tasks, on top of his medical compensation.”

A version of this is already in my Postcards from the End of America, but hey, I’m allowed to cannibalize myself. Plus, Dan Simon hasn’t sent me a royalty check in years. Jewish accounting can be most creative. One of Dan’s writers once barged into his office to grab him by the neck.

looking at Kamrieng, Cambodia from Thep Nimit, Thailand on 3/24/18

Back to Southeast Asia! With borders between Thailand and Cambodia closed, that roughed up Cambodian can’t go home anyway. Thousands are actually trying. Half a million Cambodians are working or studying in Thailand. A million Thais are ethnic Cambodians. Fifty thousand Thais live in Cambodia. Demographic realities are always messier than maps, with their clean, often straight borders and countries separated by colors. Green Poland abuts orange Ukraine abuts blue Romania.

The most visible minority in Chanthaburi are not Cambodians but Vietnamese, with their magnificent Catholic church. Though Wikipedia English claims it was built by the French, how many Frenchmen, let me ask you, ever lived there? Red and gold in its altar already proves it was erected by Vietnamese, and surrounding it are nothing but Viet businesses. By 1707, there were already Vietnamese Catholics in Chanthaburi. Visiting this parish in 2018, I heard people praying in a language that was neither Thai nor Vietnamese. Having been there so long, they could no longer speak or even pronounce a single Vietnamese word. Still, they thought they were praying in Vietnamese. Their ethnic solidarity is reinforced by a common religion.

Cambodians in Thep Nimit, Thailand on 3/24/18

Through an interpreter, I asked an old man who would he fight for should war between Thailand and Vietnam break out? Looking alarmed, my interpreter refused to translate.

During the Mexican-American War, hundreds of Irish immigrants defected from the US Army to fight for Mexico. Seventy one died in battle or were hanged, after capture. In the Mexico City suburb of San Angel, there’s a plaque honoring these San Patricios, also known as “Los Colorados” for their red hair. Many were actually Germans, Canadians, English, French, Italians, Poles, Scots, Spaniards, Swiss and even a few black ex slaves.

The more multicultural a nation, the more fragmented its citizens’ loyalties. Would Mexican Americans fight against Mexico? Would Chinese Americans cheer an American attack on China? What about Chinese majority Singapore? Despite the European Union, there are still only Frenchmen, Spaniards and Poles, etc., with each group further divided by regions. A Milanese is not a Napolitano. Bavarians can’t stand Prussians.

Poi Pet, Cambodia on 11/22/22, among travelers about to cross into Thailand

Everything is cool, though, until someone like you bleeds.

On 7/24/25, the FaceBook page of Warin Chamrap, a Thai district of 163,000, posted this letter, “I’m a Cambodian studying at the University of Ubon Ratchathani for nearly a year. Honestly, everything here is fantastic. I can feel the kindness and generosity of Thai people. Each day, everyone encourages and assists me everywhere I go, to help me learn Thai and absorb Thai culture. But ever since conflict broke out, my heart has sunk. I’ve never been so depressed. Each day, I worry about the future, about how people see me, and I’ve started to ask myself if Thai people will hate me just because I’m a Cambodian? To think this way is very painful because I’ve stopped seeing Thailand as a foreign country, but my second homeland, from my very first day here. I’ve never had any bad intention. My only goal is to learn and respect everything about Thailand while living here. With this current tension, I feel like an isolated Cambodian, but despite my fear and constant worries, I still believe in peace, and in the goodness of man. I wish with all my heart both sides will choose dialog instead of prolonging this conflict.”

Earlier this year, there was a 17-day mini war between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers. After it cooled off, Trump claimed credit despite strong, indignant protest from India. The American buffoon had nothing with this ceasefire.

Now, Trump is again pretending to be a peacemaker, but let’s be clear here: any division within ASEAN benefits the USA, and Uncle Sam loves nothing better than any ally of China to be roughed up. Thailand is using American planes and Israeli drones to punish Cambodia while accusing China of supplying Phnom Penh with new, more advanced missiles.

departure gate in Poi Pet, Cambodia, right on the border with Thailand, on 11/22/22

As I finish this at 8:01PM on 7/27/25, Bangkok and Phnom Penh time, this war continues. For years, the world has expected the USA to use Taiwan to attack China. Though that will, most likely, still happen, we have another front opened by the Empire of Chaos. When you manufacture nothing but missiles, bombs and bullshit, it’s all you can do. For Uncle Sam, mass death isn’t just a motto but survival tool.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.’

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks