WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #87, AUGUST 17, 2022
NONVIOLENCE, PACIFISM
Francesco Da Vinci. I Refuse to Kill.
In September 2022, World BEYOND War will hold a weekly discussion each of four weeks of I Refuse to Kill: My Path to Nonviolent Action in the ’60s with the author Francesco Da Vinci as part of a small group WBW [zoom] book club limited to a group of 18 participants. Francesco will send each participant a signed hardback. We'll let you know which parts of the book will be discussed each week along with the Zoom details to access the discussions.
Chris Hedges: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided WarsBy Chris Hedges, The Real News. Popular Resistance.org (8-7-22).
In Their New Book, Veterans Andrew Bacevich And Danny Sjursen Describe How The Realities Of War Expose The Lies Told By Generals And Politicians About American Goodness And Virtue.
We are not a good and virtuous nation. God does not bless us above other nations. Victory is not assured. War is not noble and uplifting. The clash between the reality of combat and the Disneyfied version of combat consumed by the public, one that propels many young men and women into war, creates not only dissonance and moral injury, but an existential crisis—one that combat veterans, at least those who are self-reflective, must cope with for the rest of their lives.
Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel who fought in Vietnam, and Danny Sjursen, a retired Army major who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, have just published Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America’s Misguided Wars. Bacevich and Sjursen, West Point graduates like many writers in the book, come out of the military culture. They began as true believers, embracing the myths of American goodness and virtue, and the military honor code pounded into them as young cadets at the military academy. The reality of combat, as it has for generations, exposed the lies told by the generals and politicians. -more-