Really, I Thought Things Were Going To Be Different

You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

from: Masters Of War by Bob Dylan

What most troubles me looking at this newswire photo of a little boy playing with a Gatling gun during an Air Force air show on Sunday is that I can’t tell how much irony was intended, if any. Then, given the way things are going, can’t you just see the boy as the soldier in the window in thirteen short years?

Also see contributer Nina Berman’s Asking Questions About America: Fleet Week #1; Black Boys With Guns: Fleet Week #2; and It’s Not A Hand Gun, It’s Military: Fleet Week #3.

(image: Jose Luis Magana-AP. May 17, 2009. caption: Cameron Staeri, 5, from Leesburg Va., plays with a helicopter Gatling gun during an air show at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland)