Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to America's Wars
If you were sitting down w/homeless vets, CBS News watching, and a homeless vet looked up at you and said “I was special forces,” how would _you_ sum up a decade jumping out of parachutes for the 82nd Airborne and keep his attention?
None of the articles about this, on Tues. a.m., have quoted the homeless vet in question. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only interview that matters here.
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”
I first met Knox Martin seven years ago, and every June 6 since I’ve heard his voice. Back then, I was writing for NYC weekly Chelsea Now about Martin’s “Venus” mural on 19th Street and the West Side Highway, since obscured by Jean Nouvel’s 100 Eleventh Avenue condominium complex. When I learned Martin, still fightingContinue reading “D-Day memories from an artist of stature”
I don’t know about you, but I found this as surprising as it is heartening. In accepting the Sam Adams Integrity Award from a task force of intelligence experts, Chelsea Manning issues what feels like her first political statement — a comment on the White House’s refusal to provide information about on the drone war.Continue reading “From prison, Chelsea Manning speaks out”
Moral injury, Jonathan Shay reminds us, puts land mines in a soldier’s heart: “The body codes moral injury as physical attack and reacts with the same massive mobilization” in response.
Chris Hedges doesn’t need me to re-blog him. But here’s my bit so that Tomas Young isn’t forgotten too soon.
I was excited to see Paula Span’s piece today in the Times, “No End to Trauma for Some Older Veterans.” She follows one 80-something vet in his struggles and notes that seeking help wasn’t popular in his war: “The prevailing medical advice — even for someone like Mr. Perna, who had fought in North Africa,Continue reading “PTSD in 1945: let there be truth”
Ward Reilly’s so much of a firecracker now, I can only imagine when he was an infantryman stirring up trouble in 1974.
I went back to Fort Meade this week, more than two years after Manning was first brought to court. Now in dispute during these last pre-trial motions before the court martial, now scheduled for June 3: those two-plus years. If there’s not another delay, that means that Bradley Manning’s court-martial will begin almost exactly threeContinue reading “these might be giants: report from Fort Meade”
Another military rape scandal — this one at Lackland Air Force Base. A very few of you might have guessed my first thought: “Ground Hog Day. When will they learn?” I say that because it’s nearly 18 years since a similar scandal at Aberdeen Proving Ground changed my job description and catalyzed the formation of the short-livedContinue reading “Men and MST: getting to the core of it”
I Ain't Marching Anymore