Category Archives: writing

Updated: Naser Abdo, who now sullies the name of dissent.

I wasn’t the only one sunk when we read through this piece about the guy who almost tried another Fort Hood massacre.  Because he was AWOL, and one of us – someone who could have been me – helped him fill out a conscientious-objector application: Like the soldier charged with killing 13 people in theContinue reading “Updated: Naser Abdo, who now sullies the name of dissent.”

Can you handle the truth? A guest post from Jane Fonda

The role of Jane Fonda in the Vietnam-era GI movement has always deeply intrigued me, but I had no idea she’d been turned anti-war after meeting deserters in Paris. The fuller story fascinates. I’ve long known the “Hanoi Jane” stuff was a smear job. Now, in “The Truth About My Trip to Hanoi,” which she explicitlyContinue reading “Can you handle the truth? A guest post from Jane Fonda”

Update about the book

For so long it’s been a work-in-progress; this site, and its associated Facebook page, a way to keep up with current affairs and share my building page count. And it still is: it’s out to outside readers who are just getting back to me, and will be revised yet again before it goes to theContinue reading “Update about the book”

it sounds so much simpler when he says it

I know this blog has been silent for so many m0nths: more than six! How can it be? But I  didn’t feel like I could keep writing here until I had the book actually delivered to the publisher. That has now happened, and I’ll say more about it later. But right now, I wanted toContinue reading “it sounds so much simpler when he says it”

PTSD in contractors? Who’s surprised?

Yeah, those guys in the fancy non-uniforms and big paychecks and company names that sound like something out of “Caprica.” I’d guessed this was coming; now, see ProPublica’s new investigation of the issue here. I also commented on their study at my new Alternet blog. From now on, the current-affairs stuff here will often originateContinue reading “PTSD in contractors? Who’s surprised?”

Leave no FNG behind: thoughts on Kelly Kennedy’s They Fought for Each Other 

I’ve hoped to grow up to be Kelly Kennedy ever since my friend, rockstar author Alia Malek, profiled the Military Times reporter for Columbia Journalism Review. I knew it was impossible, of course, as the very first line of Kennedy’s author bio makes clear: “Kelly Kennedy served as a soldier in Desert Storm and Mogadishu,Continue reading “Leave no FNG behind: thoughts on Kelly Kennedy’s They Fought for Each Other “

Don’t ask, don’t tell — don’t fight? queer notes from another pacifist for soldiers

I mentioned David Mixner back on Groundhog Day, when, appropriately enough, the Senate held their first-ever hearings on DADT. Now, you can click here to read a longer version of my interviews with him, including one about Sec. Gates’ slow-mo plan for repeal. The money quote, to me: If Obama had to live by (DADT)Continue reading “Don’t ask, don’t tell — don’t fight? queer notes from another pacifist for soldiers”

the first lying promise to veterans: outtakes from 1785

When I’m not tracking that moving target, I’m making my last swim through the rest of the book, to tighten the prose and strengthen its themes. Of course, since I’m the one doing it, that latter task means just-a-little-more-research-please —  sifting through old files and asking the scholarship for bits that belong in that zig-zagContinue reading “the first lying promise to veterans: outtakes from 1785”