So the story goes that America is disinterested, often even benevolent, in its conduct of foreign affairs. We fought the Vietnam War to protect the South Vietnamese and the rest of Southeast Asia from Communism; same with the Korean War. World War II was “the Good War”; Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on [...]
Archive for the ‘War’ category
Just another manic Monday
Postscripts, follow-ups, and a few odds and ends I’ve wanted to share for a while: 1. Nostalgia or counternostalgia? The Jon Kessler Experience VBS.tv has a little four-part Art Talk! interview with a friend of mine, Jon Kessler, who set up studio space out in Williamsburg in 1980. He took an entire factory building for [...]
The white hats, part I
William F. Buckley, Jr. died last week at the age of 82. A central figure in the birth and rise to power of the postwar American conservative movement, Buckley was well known not just in political circles but in ordinary households across the country, where his syndicated column ran in the local paper and Firing [...]
The Welcome Home Band
It is 1971. I am nearly four years old. My mother has driven my brother and me to an airplane hangar in Alameda, California, where my father is scheduled to fly his Navy jet in from somewhere or another. Dad has been gone for six months, a big chunk of my young life. I remember [...]
I am breaking this one
I recently received the following chain email. You stay up for 16 hours He stays up for days on end. You take a warm shower to help you wake up. He goes days or weeks without running water. You complain of a “headache”, and call in sick. He gets shot at as others are hit, [...]
The few, the proud, the suicidal
CNN reported last week that suicide attempts among American military personnel are way up. In fact, they reported that the number reached over two thousand last year. Also, over the last few weeks the NY Times has been running a series of articles about the high level of violent criminal activity among returning GIs, attributing [...]
A country for old men
In college I became so angry with the outrageous acts my government has commited, ostensibly on my behalf, that I researched renouncing my United States citizenship. This research was not merely about youthful anger, it was also guiding my honor’s thesis. My basic thesis was that the nation state was a problematic construction that didn’t [...]
Paul Franzoso, veteran
His parents passed through Ellis Island as part of the swell of Italian immigrants to the U. S. in the early 20th century, and settled in an area of New Jersey called the Lost Valley. Though his parents were poor, they raised eight children – one of whom was adopted because his father couldn’t bear [...]
Thursday open thread: Out now edition
Still no volunteers for Thursday Playlists. So: politics. Do any of our five or so readers still think the U.S. should stay in Iraq longer than the few months it would take to effect an orderly withdrawal? Matt Yglesias offers the following: I still hear it often said, including by liberal-minded people, that all serious [...]
Who got served? Four soldiers’ stories
1. My dear friend’s brother is 43; he’s in a happily rewarding second marriage and his kids are 5, 3, and newborn. Despite this brand-new sprouting family, though, he strongly feels his primary duty is to serve in the war, so he’s decided to enlist. His particular assignment, which is slated to last a year [...]
