From TheGuardian | Original Article The young soldier stopped to listen to the man reading on the stage in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, outside the tall façade of Charles Bronfman Auditorium. The reader was Yossi Sarid, a former education and environment minister. His text is the testimony of a soldier in the IsraelDefence Forces, one of […]
By Michael Hastings From Rolling Stone | Original Article In June 2012, fearless Rolling Stone contributing editor Michael Hastings wrote the definitive first account of Bowe Bergdahl — the young American soldier who was captured by the Taliban and became the last American prisoner of war. Hastings, the journalist who brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal in these […]
By Tim Dickinson From Rolling Stone | Original Article The late Michael Hastings wrote the definitive magazine profile of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for Rolling Stone in June 2012. Now that America’s Last Prisoner of War has been released, in a prisoner exchange for five high-ranking Taliban officials, Hastings’ piece continues to offer crucial context – about why Bergdahl […]
By Ted Rall From Information Clearing House | Original Article June 09, 2014 “ICH” – American news media portrays Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his apparent decision to simply walk away from the war in Afghanistan as bizarre and incomprehensible. I wonder why it doesn’t happen all the time. From The New York Times: “Sometime after midnight on […]
By Richard Kreitner From TheNation | Original Article Bowe Bergdahl (Photo courtesy of the United States Army) “Myths abound about deserters.” So begins an essay in the April 16, 1973, issue of The Nation. Those who propagate such myths, the essay argued, “rely on World War II clichés and stereotypes of the bad guy slinking away from his buddies under […]
By Ray McGovern From Consortiumnews.com | Original Article The right-wing media is denouncing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl as a “deserter” who wasn’t worth ransoming from the Taliban, but the real villains are the architects of the disastrous Iraq and Afghan wars who frivolously put the many Bergdahls in harm’s way, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. For me, the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl […]
On April 30th and May 1st, the We Are Not Your Soldiers tour visited two NYC alternative high schools to take part in special study days each school was holding around social issues. John Burns, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, spoke to the students about his experiences and more generally about the […]
By Pratap Chatterjee From TomDispatch.com | Original Article Speaking Truth from the Robotic Heavens Enemies, innocent victims, and soldiers have always made up the three faces of war. With war growing more distant, with drones capable of performing on the battlefield while their “pilots” remain thousands of miles away, two of those faces have, however, […]
From Network for Peace | Original Article While viewing the documentary, “Singers in the Band,” I suddenly began to cry. The film was shown during an event co-sponsored by the Network for Peace through Dialogue in conjunction with the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women meetings last month. I cried because I […]
By Greg Milam From Sky News | Original Article The Veterans Affairs Secretary rejects resignation calls over claims people died because of treatment delays at some VA hospitals. America’s top veterans’ affairs official has said he will not resign over claims that as many as 40 people died while waiting for medical treatment in the […]
From Democracy Now | Original Article A new documentary film reveals how a regular U.S. Air Force unit based in the Nevada desert is responsible for flying the CIA’s drone strike program in Pakistan. “Drone” identifies the unit conducting CIA strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas as the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron, which is located on the […]
Excerpts from Courage to Resist article by Mike McKee| Original Article A recently circulated academic paper from a U.S. Army War College research fellow demonstrates that counter recruitment is having a substantive effect on the military’s ability to recruit and retain soldiers. Writing in 2010, its author, Lt. Col. Todd Jacobus of the US Army National Guard, […]
