Opinion Forum

Iraq and Vietnam

March 20th, 2013

By Jan Barry Nearly 6 years ago, I shared these thoughts as part of a panel discussion at The New School university in New York City, on May 10, 2007… Much of it still applies as Americans mark the 10th anniversary of invading Iraq. They are two different countries in different parts of the world. […]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: critics, foreign policy, Iraq, lessons, strategy, veterans, Vietnam, war
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Moral Injury: Another Hidden Wound of War

February 24th, 2013

By Jan Barry Often lost in the translation of war, for soldiers as well as folks back home, is that much of what goes on in a war is a moral outrage. After a decade and more of warfare by American military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in hot pursuit of elusive bands […]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, moral injury, PTSD, suicide, VA, veterans, Vietnam
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From Waging War to Waging Peace

January 17th, 2013

By Jan Barry Talk by Jan Barry Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, Teaneck, NJ Sunday, January 13, 2013 When I was 21, I made the most crucial decision of my life—whether to return to Vietnam as a soldier or to resign from a military career. In a life focused on nonviolent conflict resolution, I’ve […]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, anti-war, Chappell, Iraq, peace, suicide, veterans, VVAW, war
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Confronting the War at Home

December 18th, 2012

By Jan Barry As US military forces roam the world in search of enemies to fight, folks back home are under assault by suicidal, mayhem-bent sons and neighbors wielding military assault weapons. America’s relentless war on terrorism—i.e., on people using mass violence against the globally expansive American way of life—has come home in terrifying, terrible […]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Newtown, school shooting, terrorism, wars, weapons
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Military Suicide Watch

September 9th, 2012

By Jan Barry What do you do when even war heroes can’t take it any more? A year after surviving a fierce battle in Afghanistan, Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. He was shocked that it didn’t fire, the highly decorated Marine wrote in a […]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, combat, Dakota Meyer, Iraq, suicide, veterans, war
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