Disgracing our dead on Memorial Day
I’ve been trying to articulate for days how deeply upset I am about the prospect of the President systematically pardoning people who have been convicted or are being tried for committing war crimes. I think…
Category: War
Pardoning war crimes is indefensible
I left the Army as a conscientious objector in 1992, after wrestling for months with the consequences of having killed Iraqis during the 1991 Gulf War. Today I wouldn’t qualify for that status, because I’ve…
Speaking at American University
These days it’s impossible to find anyone who supported invading Iraq, but back in 2003 it was a wildly popular idea. This clip is from a conference at American University where I talked about opposition…
Finding forgiveness for murder
“I’ll tell you the truth, Sheriff. We charged across Iraq and killed everything in our goddamn path, we left a trail of burning vehicles and broken bodies hundreds of miles long. If it moved, then…
VA Faces Two Crises: Paul Sullivan
My old friend, veterans advocate Paul Sullivan (formerly with Veterans for Common Sense and now outreach director at Bergman and Moore) writes in the Bay Citizen about the crises facing VA. Hopefully, VA Secretary Eric…
Revisiting an old topic: what does it feel like to kill
So, I’m revisiting this topic. Why? It’s come up in conversation a couple of times recently, first of all. Second, in looking at the statistics on my blog, I realized that over the course of…
Returning Home from Iraq: Interview with NPR’s All Things Considered
Veterans’ Voices: Returning Home From The Gulf War Charles Sheehan-Miles was a tank loader in the Gulf War, engaged in combat in the 24th Division. He had a hard time coming back to civilian life.…
Irritated this morning (or why Chris Hedges pisses me off)
About 2 days a week, I work from Cup a Joe Hillsborough in Raleigh, rather than driving all the way home after dropping my son off at school. This morning, I sat down at my…
Missing soldier’s wife faces deportation
Specialist Alex Jimenez, along with two other soldiers, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in May. One of his fellow soldiers was later found dead, the other is still missing. In a video posted on the internet,…
Prayer at Rumayla earns spectacular review
A few weeks ago I submitted Prayer at Rumayla: A Novel of the Gulf War for review to the Podler, a book review blog. Last night the review came back, and it was far better than I…