It's one of those words that's so small but it means something so big.
This is a place to talk about war. A place for linking / quoting lectures, speeches, videos, testimonies, news and information. A place for discussion.
I try not to think about war or talk about war or look at war. But war is a reality and I think it deserves to be looked at, witnessed, examined.
I saw this video today and was very upset by it. It's graphic - so keep that in mind if you choose to watch it. It's almost a year since it was posted on YouTube.
This is a former marine telling about his own behavior, the behavior of his comrades and how this behavior was encouraged while he was serving in Iraq.
Yesterday I heard a speech from iTunes U given by Edward Said (author of the book "Orientalism" which had a huge impact) where he talks about the looming (at the time) possibility of war with Iraq and about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I thought it was a speech worth listening to because I really am ignorant about what's going on in the world and I think it's important to learn a lot more. In his speech, Said mentions the passive American citizenry. I don't think it's a question only of passivity but of lack of information, context and understanding.
I hope this thread takes off, though war is a hard subject to talk about. I intentionally did not narrow the focus to only Iraq and Afganistan or even just to current wars.