A young man's transformation from Army Reserve volunteer to Buddhist conscientious objector and critic of the war in Iraq The Sutras of Abu Ghraib is the story of a soldier who refused to succumb to violence. In chronicling the struggles of military life and the dehumanizing effects of war, Aidan Delgado examines the attitudes that make prisoner abuse possible and explores his own developing Buddhist beliefs against a brutal backdrop. It is a tale of physical bravery, moral courage, and the cost of holding on to your identity while everyone around you is losing theirs. The son of a diplomat, Delgado grew up in various countries, including Thailand, where he was introduced to Buddhism, and Egypt, where he learned Arabic. In 2001, after his first year of college, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve, and in 2003 he was deployed as a specialist in Nasiriyah and at Abu Ghraib. When his colleagues learned that he spoke some Arabic and enjoyed meeting Iraqis, they made use of him but also began to mistrust him. As Delgado witnessed more and more American racism, arrogance, and abuse of unarmed Iraqis, his opposition mounted. Concluding that war ran counter to his Buddhist principles, he sought conscientious objector status and, after finishing his tour of duty, was honorably discharged. The following year, Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times, "The public at large and especially the many soldiers who have behaved honorably in Iraq deserve an honest answer . . . Mr. Delgado's complaints and the entire conduct of this wretched war should be thoroughly investigated."
September 11th, 2001 remains a focal point of American consciousness, a site demanding ongoing excavation, a site at which to mark before and after "everything" changed. In ways both real and intangible the entire sequence of events of that day continues to resonate in an endlessly proliferating aftermath of meanings that continue to evolve. Presenting a collection of analyses by an international body of scholars that examines America's recent history, this book focuses on popular culture as a profound discursive site of anxiety and discussion about 9/11 and demystifies the day's events in order to contextualize them into a historically grounded series of narratives that recognizes the complex relations of a globalized world. Essays in Reframing 9/11 share a collective drive to encourage new and original approaches for understanding the issues both within and beyond the official political rhetoric of the events of the "The Global War on Terror" and issues of national security.
Useful Captives: The Role of POWs in American Military Conflicts is a wide-ranging investigation of the integral role prisoners of war (POWs) have played in the economic, cultural, political, and military aspects of American warfare. In Useful Captives volume editors Daniel Krebs and Lorien Foote and their contributors explore the wide range of roles that captives play in times of conflict: hostages used to negotiate vital points of contention between combatants, consumers, laborers, propaganda tools, objects of indoctrination, proof of military success, symbols, political instruments, exemplars of manhood ideals, loyal and disloyal soldiers, and agents of change in society. The book’s eleven chapters cover conflicts involving Americans, ranging from colonial warfare on the Creek-Georgia border in the late eighteenth century, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great War, World War II, to twenty-first century U.S. drone warfare. This long historical horizon enables the reader to go beyond the prison camp experience of POWs to better understand the many ways they influence the nature and course of military conflict. Useful Captives shows the vital role that prisoners of war play in American warfare and reveals the cultural contexts of warfare, the shaping and altering of military policies, the process of state-building, the impacts upon the economy and environment of the conflict zone, their special place in propaganda and political symbolism, and the importance of public history in shaping national memory.
Books on Einstein and his theories abound. However, this book is uniquely different. It presents key concepts in Special and General Relativity, in verse form. The aim is to make Einstein's insights more "fun" to learn. It uses rhyme and rhythm to render reading memorable and thus pleasurable. Moreover, what is pleasurable may foster a better understanding, as well as retention, of ideas. Use of verse apparently worked effectively in ancient times: in the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer among the Greeks; in the Vedas and Upanishads of ancient India; both rhyme, in the form of alliteration, and rhythm in Beowulf among the Anglo-Saxons, etc. The target reader is college-educated, or college student in third year, or anyone willing to "puzzle" it out, who desires to understand why time slows down and lengths contract when objects are in relative motion; how Science, Einstein's theories in particular, can contribute to answering the perennial question: what it is to be human; how to time travel to the future by staying "young"; etc. Relativity has a reputation of being "difficult." For example, "curvature of spacetime" seems so abstruse, so forbidding a concept. But, do not disarm yourself prematurely. Do not be intimidated. As it turns out, curvature of spacetime is tidal gravity, the cause of familiar ocean tides. You may even have a "gut" feel for it. This book will not teach you how to solve problems in Relativity. Nor will it teach you how to prove "The shortest distance takes the longest time." No, we will spend our time grasping Einstein's insights, their implications on Reality and on mind; and amid our quest, on what it means to be human. More "fun" to learn does not mean that verse form is the "lazy" road to learning. It does not mean that verse form makes the difficult easy, or, the rough, plain. No, the difficult remains difficult; the rough remains rough. And to grasp it, you have to exert a determined, sustained effort and be willing to stretch your mind to accommodate the "wild" notions in Relativity. The idea motivating this book is to make the "stretching" more enjoyable relative to prose by using the rhyme-rhythm features of verse. But, "stretch" your mind, you have to. There is no "royal, poetic" road to learning There is a feature in our history, that stands out in view of our concerns in conveying knowledge-a feature that the ancients aptly used. It is the oral tradition. Since the first humans appeared, oral tradition was the sole means in transmitting knowledge for a very long time, indeed. If we fit the whole time since the first humans lived into a year, then writing started only about the morning of 30th of December. That is a huge time in which oral tradition operated, i.e. about 99.5% of our time as humans. What does this imply? We transmitted information orally; and we received information aurally This "oral-aural" conveyance was the way for all information, including that of knowledge. In addition, during the five hundred thousand years or so, oral tradition honed our brains to receive knowledge "aurally." To me, this implies that our brains have a natural "deep resonance" to features of language in the oral tradition. The key language features in the oral tradition are the rhymes and rhythms of verse. I wrote this book in verse, inspired by this thought: to make the most out of the "resonant structures" in our brains engendered by oral tradition, to convey the deep insights of Einstein on Reality. It is my sincere wish that Einstein's ideas will find recognition in the public understanding and thus inform the public outlook. I invite you, everyone: Hop in with me, a time machine we ride, Intent on chasing space-time concepts wild; To fathom Einstein's insights into Reality, In his Special and General Relativity. Like Wordsworth, a lonely cloud wandering, Through space and time we will be winging, Not to appreciate the "daffodils" of Nature; But to understand Nature's Architecture
Features a collection of Buddhist-inspired writings on a wide range of issues by talented contributors, including the Dalai Lama, Pema Chödrön, and Thich Nhat Hanh.
This book is the first comprehensive oral history of the Iraq War. It presents the raw and vivid testimonies and recollections from combat veterans, family members, conscientious objectors, Bush administration officials, Iraqi leaders, and many others, forming a gripping and moving portrait of the war.
The first book to explore the idea and effect of moral injury on veterans, their families, and their communities Although veterans make up only 7 percent of the U.S. population, they account for an alarming 20 percent of all suicides. And though treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder has undoubtedly alleviated suffering and allowed many service members returning from combat to transition to civilian life, the suicide rate for veterans under thirty has been increasing. Research by Veterans Administration health professionals and veterans’ own experiences now suggest an ancient but unaddressed wound of war may be a factor: moral injury. This deep-seated sense of transgression includes feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated core moral beliefs. Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, who both grew up in families deeply affected by war, have been working closely with vets on what moral injury looks like, how vets cope with it, and what can be done to heal the damage inflicted on soldiers’ consciences. In Soul Repair, the authors tell the stories of four veterans of wars from Vietnam to our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan—Camillo “Mac” Bica, Herman Keizer Jr., Pamela Lightsey, and Camilo Mejía—who reveal their experiences of moral injury from war and how they have learned to live with it. Brock and Lettini also explore its effect on families and communities, and the community processes that have gradually helped soldiers with their moral injuries. Soul Repair will help veterans, their families, members of their communities, and clergy understand the impact of war on the consciences of healthy people, support the recovery of moral conscience in society, and restore veterans to civilian life. When a society sends people off to war, it must accept responsibility for returning them home to peace.
America's crimes against the people of Iraq were shielded from public scrutiny by what senior U.S. military officers called the quiet, disguised, media-free approach developed in Central America in the 1980s. The echo chamber of the Western corporate media fleshed out the Pentagon's propaganda to create a virtual Iraq in the minds of the public, feeding a political discourse that bore no relation to the real war it was waging, the country it was destroying or the lives of its inhabitants. Davies takes apart the wall of propaganda surrounding one of history's most significant military disasters and most serious international crimes: non-existent WMDs; the equally fictitious centuries-old sectarian blood feud in Iraq; and the secrecy of the dirty war waged by American-led death squads. He places each aspect of the war within a context of illegal aggression, hostile military occupation and popular resistance, to uncover the brutal reality of a war that has probably killed at least a million people. From publisher description.
A sweeping history of the passionate men and women in uniform who have bravely and courageously exercised the power of dissent Before the U.S. Constitution had even been signed, soldiers and new veterans protested. Dissent, the hallowed expression of disagreement and refusal to comply with the government’s wishes, has a long history in the United States. Soldier dissenters, outraged by the country’s wars or egregious violations in conduct, speak out and change U.S. politics, social welfare systems, and histories. I Ain’t Marching Anymore carefully traces soldier dissent from the early days of the republic through the wars that followed, including the genocidal “Indian Wars,” the Civil War, long battles against slavery and racism that continue today, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, and contemporary military imbroglios. Acclaimed journalist Chris Lombardi presents a soaring history valorizing the brave men and women who spoke up, spoke out, and talked back to national power. Inviting readers to understand the texture of dissent and its evolving and ongoing meaning, I Ain’t Marching Anymore profiles conscientious objectors including Frederick Douglass’s son Lewis, Evan Thomas, Howard Zinn, William Kunstler, and Chelsea Manning, adding human dimensions to debates about war and peace. Meticulously researched, rich in characters, and vivid in storytelling, I Ain’t Marching Anymore celebrates the sweeping spirit of dissent in the American tradition and invigorates its meaning for new risk-taking dissenters.
Lessons from veterans and active duty service members in opposition to US interventionist military policy Rules of Disengagement examines the reasons men and women in the military have disobeyed orders and resisted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It takes readers into the courtroom where sailors, soldiers, and Marines have argued that these wars are illegal under international law and unconstitutional under US law. Through the voices of active duty service members and veterans, it explores the growing conviction among our troops that the wars are wrong. While the Obama Administration’s pledge to remove all American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 is encouraging – and in no small way likely attributable to resistance by our armed forces – it continues to fight in Afghanistan, and the military may soon have a heightened presence elsewhere in the Middle East and in Africa. As such, Rules of Disengagement provides inspiration and lessons for anyone who opposes an interventionist US military policy.
