Iraq – I Ain't Marching Anymore

Soldier-dissent in real time

The Wall of Vets in Portland. They were active nationwide as Election Defenders too.

!– wp:code –> I started this week staring at the #WallofVets. The video above bears re-watching: for its diversity of ages, for the military branches represented, for the solidarity among the protesters, the “walls” of mothers, dads and veterans converged to face federal agents sent to suppress their node of the George Floyd uprising. TheContinue reading “Soldier-dissent in real time”

Outtake: Scott Olsen, who almost died for Occupy

Eight years ago this week, a NYPD riot at New York’s Zuccotti Park evicted the last remaining Occupy Wall Street activists. That year had seen an incredible amount of movement-building, with organizing from coast to coast–including by dissenting veterans. Below, a vigil for Iraq vet Scott Olsen at Occupy Oakland. In 2011, Obama’s Afghanistan “surge”Continue reading “Outtake: Scott Olsen, who almost died for Occupy”

Listen to Matthew Hoh

I’ve been hoping to interview Matthew Hoh for nearly a decade, and hope to meet him next month: but meanwhile you can see this from his blog.”The most important things American veterans can do is to speak openly and plainly about what they saw during their time in the military, what they took part inContinue reading “Listen to Matthew Hoh”

The day I finally met Chelsea Manning

Updated to add this link, in which Chelsea Manning spoke more clearly about her case than she felt able to do at Penn. (Forgive the deadname in Atlantic’s title; it was before she came out to the world as the assured young woman you see above. The photo above was taken on November 29, 2017,Continue reading “The day I finally met Chelsea Manning”

memorial day, Tomas Young and what we owe

I’ve =been rightly scolded for treating Memorial Day a bit too much like Veterans Day. My two commentaries this week are about Tomas Young, shot by a sniper in 2004, who took 10 years to die and before then, emerged as an opponent of the Iraq war. (If you haven’t seen Body of War, you might wantContinue reading “memorial day, Tomas Young and what we owe”

so many ways to try to save Private Manning

The performers last night at the Inis Nua Theatre, who traded off the role of “Bradley Manning” among them as they shifted eras and roles, were terrific – engaging, comic and tragic by turns.

Pi Day news: some rational writing to go w/the irrational number

Assorted items, w/good news provided by Father Philip Berrigan, WWII veteran and angelic troublemaker thereafter, and his 21st-century successor Col. Ann Wright.

news: the Monday dozen

I know I haven’t posted one of these in a few days, but that’s not because there wasn’t much to note. Below is a full baker’s dozen, though some are echoes of stories already on our radar. The Toronto Star offers an elegant PTSD history, showing how “soldier’s heart” became “shell shock” became “combat fatigue” becameContinue reading “news: the Monday dozen”

our wednesday five

From Civil War women to depleted uranium, nearly all my obsessions accounted for today. But first, the Pentagon finally attends to the VERY 21st-century issue of those “burn pits” searing the lungs of so many Iraq troops, first exposed by the remarkable Kelly Kennedy. On depleted uranium, still poisoning Gulf War I and OIF vets,Continue reading “our wednesday five”

“At war, it can protect you; at home, it can kill you.”

Now that’s a Monday morning wake-up for you. Fallujah vet Andrew Chambers’s TedX talk from an Ohio correctional facility: Like so many of this generation, Chambers begins by telling his 9/11 story, watching a TV in Ohio as it showed the destruction of the Twin Towers. My J-school sensei Dale Maharidge, author of Homeland, will recognize theContinue reading ““At war, it can protect you; at home, it can kill you.””