Cultures of War should be mandatory reading in our military academies and in government.
Cultures of War
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War Is Not Good For You
Back in the 1960s, peace activists sported a bumper sticker that read: “War is not good for children and other living creatures.” In a way, that sums up Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel’s War and Public Health, where 46 experts on everything from epidemiology to international law weigh in on the authors’ central premise: “War and militarism have catastrophic effects on human health and well being.”
Genocide in Burma
Nearly 50 years after a military-led coup overthrew Burma’s last democratically elected government, the Southeast Asian country has suffered some of the world’s most egregious human rights abuses. For activists, Burma has become synonymous with institutionalized rape, torture, forced labor, and ethnic cleansing. In the popular imagination, however, the enormity of Burma’s crisis remains obscured by indifference and the overshadowing presence of disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur.
Interview with Virgil Suarez
How might the changing political relationship between Cuba and the United States influence Cuban-American literature?
Iraq Throws Obama a Curve Ball, Key 2010 Elections in Peril
Reminiscent of the political problems in Afghanistan that have plagued the Obama White House, on Monday Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi vetoed a set of amendments to Iraq’s election law approved by the Iraqi parliament. The veto may lead to a delay of the Iraqi elections, currently scheduled for January 21, 2010, and could trigger a debate over U.S. plans to withdraw from Iraq.
Poem, ‘When I was Torn by War’
When I was torn by war I took a brush Immersed in death And drew a window On war’s wall I opened it Searching For something But I saw another war And a mother Weaving a shroud For the dead man Still in her womb Baghdad, 1990
How to Exit Afghanistan
For years, the war in Afghanistan has been in crisis. But now with a failed Afghan election, the resurgence of the Taliban as a political power, NATO allies withdrawing from the battlefield, and Pakistan’s tribal areas under increasing influence from the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the situation looks worse than ever. Obama and his team are spinning their wheels trying to devise a policy to right the sinking ship, but the most sensible solution, for Afghans and U.S. citizens, is to start planning a way out.
Their Martyrs and Our Heroes
The actor Will Smith is no one’s image of a suicide bomber. With his boyish face, he has often played comic roles. Even as the last man on earth in I Am Legend, he retains a wise-cracking, ironic demeanor. And yet, surrounded by a horde of hyperactive vampires at the end of that film, Smith clasps a live grenade to his chest and throws himself at the enemy in a final burst of heroic sacrifice.
Book Excerpt, ‘The Will to Resist’
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Dahr Jamail’s The Will To Resist: Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan (Haymarket Books). The testimonies below were collected at a national conference, "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan," held by Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Poem: “The Center for the Intrepid”
(New $50M Rehab Center Opens on Fort Sam Houston, CBS News, Jan 2007) Wheeled onto the jet leaving my town, another soldier whose pruned body echoes earth liberating itself from gravity. Inside the cave of his grey -hooded shirt he sweats as might a ghost or cello. As in another war when a baptism and […]