July 2020: As the book approaches publication WITHOUT an introduction, I decided to repost this from ten years ago, when it was still under the aegis of UC Press and Chelsea Manning was still imprisoned at Quantico. The book evolved as well, but the themes below whisper from between its pages. It’s been a long timeContinue reading “Notes toward an introduction”
Category Archives: PTSD
VIDEO: Millennials and conscience
Some video reminders why this book has to exist. A simple question, posed 6 years ago by a respected journalist to an author, was already being answered Chelsea Manning, soon to be echoed by the voices of the whistleblowers above. I discovered the first as I was reshaping – for the last time, I hope!Continue reading “VIDEO: Millennials and conscience”
some musings on moral injury
War’s damage to one sense of self as a moral being could even be conceived as one of humanity’s core dilemmas.
“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.””
bloody bloody caricature of the citizen soldier
This Daily Beast call to strip Andrew Jackson off the $20 is way overdue: it doesn’t stop with the Trail of Tears. The military record that made Jackson a “war hero”? One long recitation of atrocity. Heroically breaking a treaty with the Creeks to slaughter them wholesale. Taking advantage of the Battle of New Orleans to ruleContinue reading “bloody bloody caricature of the citizen soldier”
Some actual news, some not quite
By “not quite” I mean: Who knew all you needed was ONE quote from the Army secretary and then pack in all the partisan backstory. and Presto – you can get paid?
A veteran #suicide story that’s about much more
A day rarely passes when I don’t hear of a suicide by a vet of these 21st-century wars.I’d do little else if I tried to note each one, but this story out of Tampa tells us that the MST struggle is so far from won: “I suspect she was assaulted, and she didn’t feel comfortableContinue reading “A veteran #suicide story that’s about much more”
On Veterans’ Day, some important voices on this new forever war
The commentary below was published today in shorter form on Al-Jazeera America, but I liked the whole thing enough to share it here. Inherent Resolve? Try inherent blowback, say recent vets of Iraq war Veterans Day this year falls almost exactly two months after Pres Obama announced an ongoing military campaign against the ‘Islamic State’Continue reading “On Veterans’ Day, some important voices on this new forever war”
“the poor and Midling will bear the burden”
How early whistleblowers, “white Indians,” and those darn Quakers showed that the newest soldiers weren’t about to lose their rights. Excerpts of my upcoming book.
Bradley Manning: WIRED folds, and my dilemma is moot.
WIRED has just released the full transcripts of the conversations between Manning and that snake Adrian Lamo – meaning that everyone that cares about Manning, thinks him hero or traitor, has no way of not knowing about the gender issues. They’re mesmerizing reading, though I agree with Gawker that Lamo turns out to be evenContinue reading “Bradley Manning: WIRED folds, and my dilemma is moot.”
I Ain't Marching Anymore 