I was in my cubicle, in the Fairfax County Government Center, 30 miles from the Pentagon. I was hard at work on the FY 2003 budget for my agency, the Division of Solid Waste, Collection and Recycling. Then came news of the first attack. Only nobody knew it was an attack when the first plane [...]
It’s been a month now, and a memorial service held. Too late to comment much, except to echo the comments of the Prime Minister from a month ago–and I paraphrase, keep Norway open. In other words, no draconian security measures to be imposed. No restrictions on the borders to keep out Muslims, as the right-wing [...]
Shameless self-promotion: you can download Waiting for Westmoreland as an epub now for $8.99. Go here if you have an iPad, etc. with which to view it and are so inclined. If you don’t know about WFW, hit the last item in the links to your right. Also, belatedly, if you had a comment that [...]
Continue reading about Waiting for Westmoreland now on iTunes
I voted for him. I support him on most things. But Obama is so wrong to avoid prosecuting those who tortured suspected terrorists. The US has been actively involved in prosecuting people throughout the world for the same kinds of deeds done for purposes allegedly fair but more often admittedly foul. The fact that others [...]
Way back when, during the Vietnam War, there were areas designated as “free fire zones.” Those were pieces of land that the U.S. military described to the locals, via air-dropped fliers in Vietnamese language, as subject to automatic weapon or artillery fire without asking questions. In the old Wild West parlance, “shoot first and ask [...]
I come late to the party, honoring the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I won’t waste space here reinventing what news and commentary you can find elsewhere. I do want to mention the sad irony of the recent report of the Senate Armed Services Committee on detainee abuse under the Bush [...]
Continue reading about 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights
About 7 1/2 years ago, my wife felt frustrated that she had not received a promotion she had applied for. Everyone (her coworkers and associates) were surprised when someone else got the job instead of her. She worked for the Department of the Army then, before retiring in 2004. As Buddhists we recognize that sometimes we [...]
For those whose loved ones are there now or who suffer after effects from time they spent in combat, Iraq and Afghanistan remain an immediate concern. For others, like myself, the conflicts are an abstraction. The sufferings of the soldiers and the civilians do not pain my psyche. I have to remind myself again and [...]
Continue reading about Iraq, Afghanistan and the American Psyche
Comes now a military (meaning a U.S. military legal officer, not some outsider) defense lawyer saying he was shown an SOP manual for interrogators provided by the Pentagon that urged them to destroy handwritten notes of questioning to avoid the potential disclosure of harsh interrogation techniques. It just keeps on coming. I don’t think I [...]
I caught a bit of Good Morning America this AM. They featured a story about the seven month ordeal of Amanda Knox, an American student jailed in Italy without charges–apparently on suspicion of complicity in the death of her roommate. GMA painted a grim story, tugging at the heart strings of viewers by interviewing the [...]