Conflicts in Fiction and Fictions in Conflict
There are times, like last week, when spats over things like the “Ground Zero Mosque” seem worth great attention and exertion. Even I was moved to jump into the ring and voice my opinions. In many ways, though, I never feel like I’m fully joining one “crowd” or the other. We refer to sides in [...]
I have discussed the issue of the “Ground Zero Mosque” in moral terms. I’ve discussed it in historical terms. But morality is a language whose terms are steeped in perspective. Despite the ardent disputes of those who would say there is no such thing as “moral relativism”, the fact that they themselves can’t agree on [...]
There’s a reason the face of Edward James Olmos’s Admiral Adama character is on the banner. Battlestar Galactica was one of the best fictional dramas I’ve ever seen that incorporated elements of our current lives and contextualized them in a way that provoked us to view things from different angles. The show never feared to [...]
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They implemented the suicidal strategy of Kamikaze pilots against our naval forces. They gave every indication that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would be met with the fiercest resistance they could muster. So we nuked two of their largest military and industrial centers. They were cities, and millions of [...]
It is said “once a soldier, always a soldier.” I suppose it’s true in my case. As I ride over the crests of some of Italy’s highest hills and gaze into the valleys below, a part of me can’t help but consider where I’d lay in my mortar positions. Any time I come through the [...]
My wife brought it to my attention recently that I wasn’t managing my time in a way she felt was appropriate. To wit– she was getting jealous of the relationship developing between my computer screen and I. The purchase of a new video game didn’t help things, but it was only the punctuation mark on [...]
It took me the weekend and several cups of coffee to digest the Army’s new report on suicides. As others have already commented, the press probably should have done the same. It’s obvious when you compare the report to the summaries produced by the news media that their deadlines didn’t allow them to get past the [...]
I said I wasn’t going to approach anything in any particular order. At least I’m good to my word. Before I ever knew who General Welsh was, I learned one of the greatest lessons of my life about Soldiering and the art of war. They say the best lessons are the most painful. This one [...]
The entire Defense Department has been wondering how it was going to handle the other shoe dropping after Specialist Bradley Manning leaked a damning video of gun camera footage showing an American helicopter mistakenly shooting journalists a few months ago. Well, it’s dropped. And the reaction? Pretty much what you’d expect– lots of bluster to [...]
It’s official. June was the worst month since Vietnam for suicides in the Army. Psychiatrists and Army leaders keep saying they have no explanation why this is continuing.
I’m not sure if they’re aware, but we’re fighting a war in Afghanistan.
Not many people are aware of this, but there’s an alternate ending to Stallone’s First Blood. [...]
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