Nick Turse at Tom Dispatch. “Will You Bring My Dad and Give Me My Hand Back?”

War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things

Liz Stephens & Jacob Levi at African Arguments. South Sudan faces world’s first permanent mass displacement due to climate change

Floods have forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave the Sudd region, possibly never to return.

I felt such hurt reading this article. My heart breaks for the people. There is pain too connected to the metaphor of the Earth as our mother. And so the location of this ongoing tragedy along the Nile instills a sense of grief for our Mother Earth and our love for her.

Andrea Mazzarino at Tom Dispatch. War and Famine

America’s War on Terror and the Wasting of Our Democracy

War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan edoted by Cahterine Lutz and Andrea Massario

Samah Jabr quoted in an article by Bethan McKernan in The Guardian. ‘Chronic traumatic stress disorder’: the Palestinian psychologist challenging western definitions of trauma

Chair of the Palestinian ministry of health’s mental health unit says the clinical definition of PTSD does not fit the reality in Gaza

Amira Hass translated by Riva Hocherman in Hammer and Hope. THE GAZA STRIP HAS BEEN DESTROYED. SO HAS HOPE FOR A FAIR FUTURE FOR THE TWO PEOPLES.

As a Jewish leftist born in Israel, I feel a profound sense of grief and defeat.

Bloomberg Opinion at Deccan Herald. The new multipolar world mimics the US at its worst

It’s no coincidence that much of the international customary law governing when you can and can’t attack targets on territory that isn’t yours is based on historical incidents that involve America.

Michal Haley quoted in an essay by Robert Koehler at Common Dreams. The Cry of the Wounded and the Dead: End the War! End the War!

It’s time to break the cycle. That means living our values, not defying them.

Wikipedia article on The Utility of Force.

The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World by Rupert Smith

 Elizabeth Schmidt's concise history of the post-independence war in Angola--lasting 26 years--is so clear. It's important history for understanding our present.

Pavlo Kovtoniuk quoted in an article by Stephanie Nolen in Japan Times, originally published in The New York Times. In global conflict zones, hospitals and doctors are no longer spared

This article may provide useful context for Matthew Petti's report: From the UN , About the Naka -The Question of Palestine:

I am struggling to understand the situation in Gaza and especially US policy, Petti's report provides very good links to news reporting.

The calls in Israel for ethnic cleansing of Gaza must not be unnoticed. American policy ought not to encourage war crimes, indeed our policy ought to seek to avoid perpetration of war crimes.

Seth Moulton quoted in an article by Elliot Ackerman in Smithsonian Magazine (2019). How Should We Memorialize Those Lost in the War on Terror?

Americans have erected countless monuments to wars gone by. But how do we pay tribute to the fallen in a conflict that might never end?

After reading Jon Schwarz's piece in The Intercept about the public comment period for the Global War On Terror Memorial I proceeded to make myself feel a little sick with anger envisioning inappropriate memorial ideas.

In real life, everyday I enounter service members who suffer as a result of a very long and ongoing war. I care about them and the consequences of these wars.

Ackerman piee linked and a recent piee in The Washington Post changed my perspective about this public somment period. I doubt that I will post a comment, but with Akerman's intervention at least I can imagine making a genuine comment.

Here's an article at VA News about the public comment period. And here's a link to the Global War On Terrorism Memorial Foundation.

Don Lattin

Diane Feinstein's death brought up dark memories of the 1970's and early 1980s in ways suggesting that if not repressed memory, at least memory I don't quite know how to cope with. Ever so gently turning my attention to what I prefer not to face, I landed on a book review in the San Francisco Gate of David Talbot's Season of the Witch by Don Lattin.

Lattin worked as a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle covering religion, spirituality and psychology for two decades. He's witen numerous books and articles and taught journalism students. I hadn't heard of him before so his Website gives me lots to explore.

I don't want to diminish the construct of moral injury, but poking around Lattin's site it's the term than came to mind about my own conduct in life. Perhaps "hypocrite" is the more accurate lens. But the advantage of "moral injury" is allowing an aknoweldgement that commitments to "peace, love and understanding" are heartfelt and genuine.

Victoria Amelina in the Guardian. Victoria Amelina: Ukraine and the meaning of home

Before she was killed by a Russian missile strike, the acclaimed novelist and war crimes researcher wrote about growing up in Moscow’s shadow, and how she came to understand what being Ukrainian really meant

This piece is adapted from an essay first published by the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa under the title Expanding the Boundaries Of Home: A Story for Us All

Willow Berridge at The Conversation. Omar al-Bashir brutalised Sudan – how his 30-year legacy is playing out today

Berridge's article provides important context for understanding today's news; Reuters hedline: Sudan's Bashir and allies out of jail, fighting flares

Sine Plambech in Africa Is A Country. Proof that our society works

You know who Gary Lineker is, and perhaps the Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan. But do you know who Abiden Jafari is?

Dan Froomkin at Press Watch. “Complicit enablers”: 20 years later, the press corps has learned nothing

I am a fan of Dan Froomkin's writing on journalism. I saved this link because I've wanted to address the anniversary of The Invasion of Iraq. I have felt sadness and shame. This piece captures a a crucial part of the public support for the war. And provide constructive criticism for journalism. Change is needed, but I share  his concerns that it difficult to imagine change is on the horizon. 

I am not a particularly knowledgeable about the big events of my lifetime. Knowing that, I keep quiet about suspicions I harbor. I do try not to magnify mistrust for myself and others. But that doesn't make dark suspicions go away. So the revelation by Ben Barnes that he worked with John Connally to convince Iran to refrain from  releasing hostages held from the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran during the revolution while Carter was President. The goal was to aid in the Election of Ronald Reagan.

Reagan's treachery ranks with Richard Nixon's sabotage of the 1968 Vietnam War peace talks. In both instances the outlines of the conspiracies were known, but strongly and repeatedly denied by  the principals as well as the establishment press. We continue to experience repercussions from the history of the Reagan administration policies in the Greater Middle East areto this day.

A decade after Reagan's election committee's sabotage, a respected Iran scholar, Gary Sick wrote about "The October Surprise." In 1992 a House Task Force was instituted to investigate. Basically the task force found there was no "there" there.

In 1986 a US Senate subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations headed by John Kerry examined drug trafficking and the Nicaraguan Contras. There is some meat in the report. A year later joint hearings between the House Select Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition were held.

There is a feeling that twenty years after the Iraq War "nobody cares." As I say, I am no expert, but I not so sure that's right. I rememeber that lots of people cared about the sabotage of Peace Talks. Lots of people cared about the American hostages in Iran. Lots of people cared about the drugs and gun running implicit in Iran Contra. There was great skepticism about the first Invasion of Iraq. Giant public demonstrations against the second show there was less unanimity that we're told. Many have cared and still care.

"Complicit enablers" applies not just to the Press. What the trope "nobody cares" obscures is how  consent is manufactured.