Opinion Forum

Vet Arts Profiled on PBS

May 2nd, 2012

By Jan Barry PBS Newshour ran an unusual program the other night, providing an insightful look at the Combat Paper Project that I’ve been working with for some time. “Finally tonight, transforming the wardrobe of war into art,” PBS Newshour anchor Gwen Ifill said in introducing this report aired on April 30. “In 2007, a [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, combat art, Combat Paper, Iraq, PBS, veterans, vets
Categories: Arts, Military, News | Comments (2) | Home

Government and the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

April 26th, 2012

By Dan Miller Douglas Adams’ Ravenous Bugblatter Beast is a beacon lighting the way for government. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy clarifies much that would otherwise remain puzzling to sentient beings. With the explanations it provides, even carbon-based, bipedal ape-descended life forms on Earth — who are “so amazingly primitive that they still think [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Afghanistan, apology, bow, Hitchhiker's Guide, Obama, ROE, satire
Categories: Arts, Military, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Further Thoughts on Koran Burning in Afghanistan

March 2nd, 2012

By Dan Miller There have been a few developments and some of them are good. In this article, I wrote about recent Koran burnings and the military justice implications. Little if any reliable further information emerged until today: PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan — Military investigators have concluded that five soldiers were involved in the incineration of a [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Afghanistan, burning, Islam, Koran, Muslims, punishment, Quran, soldiers
Categories: Law, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Vietnam and Afghanistan

March 1st, 2012

By Tom Carter This article was originally published in September 2009 — two and a half years ago. Unfortunately, it’s as relevant today as it was then. In late 1965, I was in Kontum, Vietnam as a pilot in a helicopter crew sent there for a few days to support U.S. Special Forces operations. I [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Bernard Fall, failure, Islam, Taliban, terrorism, Vietnam
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

What Happens After Korans Are Burned in Afghanistan?

February 29th, 2012

By Dan Miller Who did it, why and under what circumstances? What should and should not be done? The military justice system demands justice for our troops. It does not permit revenge upon them to curry favor with others, even our enemies. The burning of an unstated number of Korans in Afghanistan and the aftermath [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Afghanistan, apologies, burning, Islam, justice, Koran, Quran, satire, trial
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Truth about the War in Afghanistan

February 8th, 2012

By Tom Carter If you haven’t seen it yet, you should read “Truth, lies and Afghanistan” by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis, published by Armed Forces Journal. As LTC Davis puts it, “The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Davis, failure, lies, report, success, truth
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Happy Holidays

December 17th, 2011

By Jan Barry

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Combat Paper Project, Holidays, Iraq, veterans, Vietnam
Categories: Arts | Comments (9) | Home

From Making War to Book Making

October 28th, 2011

By Jan Barry Tearing a leaf from Edgar Allan Poe’s literary leave from the US Army, a similarly brash band of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans called Warrior Writers is raising money from friends, family and fellow vets to publish a collection of their own poetry, prose and art drawn from military experience. Poe parted [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, anthology, Iraq, poetry, veterans, war, Warrior Writers
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (0) | Home

Republican Peace Piper

September 18th, 2011

By Jan Barry Ron Paul is the kind of presidential candidate the American people haven’t seen in a long time—one who’s dead serious about ending overseas military adventures. That’s a stance that is increasingly popular with disgruntled voters across the political spectrum, which could well spell trouble for President Obama. Activists on the left and [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, foreign policy, Iraq, libertarian, Ron Paul, war, withdrawal
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Peace Beat

September 11th, 2011

By Jan Barry War drums began beating across America before the dust settled at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It’s an all-American tradition to march to the beat for military action, the fountain of flag waving excitement that produces legions of war correspondents, bugle-blaring headlines and armchair commandos in newsrooms. It is rare [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: 9/11, Afghanistan, budget, Iraq, Keller, peace, Pentagon, war
Categories: Media, Military, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Welcome Home

August 10th, 2011

By Jan Barry Bob and Moe Eaton’s marriage, shadowed for more than 30 years by nightmares from the war in Vietnam, was about to implode. Ken Kraft, an Army officer who proudly served in Iraq, felt betrayed by his son’s refusal to carry on the family tradition of military service. Eli Painted Crow, a former [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, film, Iraq, Oregon, PTSD, The Welcome, veterans, Vietnam
Categories: Arts, Military, News | Comments (0) | Home

Eyes of Babylon in New York

June 17th, 2011

By Jan Barry Jeff Key took the long road—via Iraq, a ditch in Texas and many other way stations across America—to perform on a New York stage. Key is currently presenting a slice of his own life as a gay Marine in his one-man show, “The Eyes of Babylon,” at 59E59 Theaters. Reviewers have stretched [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, don't ask don't tell, gay, Iraq, Jeff Key, Marine, New York, play
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (0) | Home

After Memorial Day

June 5th, 2011

By Jan Barry What do Americans do the day after Memorial Day? Move on, mostly, into the swing of summer, the resumption of daily routines uninterrupted by badgering advertisements for holiday sales and blaring reminders to commemorate the war dead. So the crowd was sparse the day after Memorial Day at the Veterans’ Voices poetry [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Memorial Day, Murray, poetry, PTSD, veteran, Wright
Categories: Life, Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Rethinking National Security at the Pentagon

May 11th, 2011

By Jan Barry “Sustainability” is the latest buzz word in academic and environmental circles. Now it is also buzzing around the halls of the Pentagon. As the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan run out of rationalizations and public patience, two staff officers working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff have developed a new twist [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, defense, foreign policy, Iraq, security, strategy, sustainability
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

“We” Got Osama bin Laden?

May 4th, 2011

By Tom Carter Lots of Americans are happily shouting, “We got Osama bin Laden!” When I first heard it, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What do you mean, ‘we’?” The fact is, the U.S. military and intelligence officers got him, under the leadership of their chains of command, including the Secretary of Defense, the [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, bin Laden, burden, Iraq, Marines, society, soldiers, veterans
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (11) | Home

Failed Foreign Policy of the Obama Administration

April 28th, 2011

By Tom Carter Mismanaged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, inept responses to Libya, silence on Syria, failure in the Middle East peace process. President Obama continues to demonstrate that he isn’t up to the job. President Bush botched the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in several ways. Most everyone understood the reasons for invading Afghanistan [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, foreign policy, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Middle East, Pakistan, Syria
Categories: History, News, Politics | Comments (8) | Home

What the World Sees in America

April 23rd, 2011

By Tom Carter Peggy Noonan, one of my favorite political columnists, is an insightful observer of the world around us and our place in it as Americans. Her April 21 column, “What the World Sees in America,” is a must-read. Noonan begins with a commentary on the wars America has lately been involved in — [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, culture, nation building, society, war, warriors
Categories: Life, Military, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Counting Up the Costs of War

March 28th, 2011

By Jan Barry How many ways need it be said? America is going broke—and has become imperious, callous and cruel—waging wars around the world. A group of concerned citizens in New Jersey and New York set out recently to visually convey the costs of war for our nation. The result is a mind-boggling array of [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, costs, dead, financial, Iraq, photos, Vietnam, war, wounded
Categories: Arts, Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

What’s Foreign Aid? Why Does the U.S. Provide It?

March 14th, 2011

By Dan Miller It’s time to reassess the good, the bad, and the ugly. According to this article, a recent poll revealed that “respondents thought the foreign aid part of the federal budget was an average of 27 percent. The real amount is about one percent.” That suggests either that the amount of foreign aid [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Afghanistan, amounts, Egypt, federal budget, foreign aid, Jordan, Pakistan
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

The Latest Farewell to Fighting Wars in Asia

February 28th, 2011

By Jan Barry “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it.” There’s a quote for the history books, broadcast last week at the US Military [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Asia, defense secretary, Gates, Iraq, Middle East, USMA, war
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

« Older Articles