Iraq War | Iraq War
Oct.28.2011
In case you missed it, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan came and went a couple of weeks ago. October 6, to be precise. The date marked another anniversary: a small group of people have been occupying not exactly America, but the corner of Golden Gate and Larkin at...
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Aug.27.2011
(A version of this peace, with photos, can be found at my official web page. Thanks for reading!)
The other day I performed a small but poignant task—removing the name of Louise Clark, who died early Sunday morning, August 21, from my e-mail distribution list for this space.
I married my way...
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Jan.20.2011
Five years ago, I came home from war.
It was the end of the longest unnatural separation from my family: 11 months and 18 days. I counted myself lucky; when we deployed to Iraq, the Rumor of the Day had it that we were in for an 18-month tour.
Fate and the whim of military brass decreed otherwise...
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Nov.29.2010
Point Omega is a term that refers to the condition of maximum organized complexity, and Don Delillo's short book--it's not a novel, though it's sold that way for $24.00--pursues Point Omega by means of a meditative, brooding quasi-narrative wherein consciousness belongs either in a room where...
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Sep.14.2010
Looking back through the journal I kept during my deployment to Iraq, I came across these four entries--four days which were pretty typical of the 345 I spent over there. The events of the Sept. 14 entry forms the basis of what is currently the opening scene of Fobbit.
September 11, 2005: In a...
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May.22.2010
THIS ESSAY APPEARED ON THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER'S OP-ED PAGE ON APRIL 28, 2003. UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S JUST AS RELEVANT TODAY.
It’s a simple gesture. In the newspaper photo, an Iraqi man squats between two rough wooden coffins, his arms spread wide. In each box a small body is loosely wrapped in a...
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Jan.18.2010
‘With the knowledge of the facts I had back then, I wouldn’t have acted differently at this moment,’‘With today’s knowledge of the facts, I would have acted differently back then.’
Two phrases uttered by a leading politician but what do they mean? Apply them to your own life and they become really...
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Nov.19.2009
Once, while still in the U.S. Air Force, I discussed the issue of the need for world peace with someone very close to me. At one point, she very sincerely asked a question I had never considered: "What if peace comes and nobody wants it?"
I answered that if peace came and nobody wanted...
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Nov.16.2009
Astonishingly, more than 30,000 foreign born detainees face deportation at some 350 facilities nationwide. Nearly half are legal residents who committed crimes that range from homicide to misdemeanor drug possession, and were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after serving their...
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Nov.06.2009
At Fort Hood, a soldier gunned down 12 and injured 31 people. His name is Nidal Malik Hassan. He opened fire at a military processing center and In my opinion the 39 year old psychiatrist felt like it was wrong for him to declare war against the Muslim world, while he being a Muslim himself. Malik...
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