Will Griffin: A Soldier’s Journey to Revolution, Part 2

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[DS reposted the introduction to these interviews.]

by Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Peace Report, Oct. 21, 2019
October 31, 2019

I recently interviewed an Afghanistan veteran about his transition from US Army soldier to Revolutionary Communist. Mason Bliss deployed twice to Afghanistan, in 2011 and in 2013. Since separating from the US Army in 2015, he has been organizing as a communist, raising the consciousness of the masses and fighting back against the system he once defended, US imperialism.

U.S. Army: 0 — Internet: 1 by David Swanson

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
May 26, 2019

The U.S. Army tweeted a harmless rah-rah tweet and got hit with a burst of reality never encountered on corporate-controlled media. Score one for the internet.

Abby Martin: Used and Betrayed: 100 Years of US Troops as Lab Rats

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
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Dandelion Salad

Published previously on May 23, 2016

with Abby Martin

teleSUR English on May 23, 2016

On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.” This pledge is hammered into the American psyche at every turn. But there is a hidden, dark history that shows that the politicians are in fact no friend to service members–but their greatest enemy. An easy way to prove this truth is to look at how they so quickly betray and abandon their soldiers after purposely ruining their lives, and even after using them as literal lab rats.

Mental Health Suffers As Gaza Is Choked By The Blockade by Soraya Boyd

Image by duncan c via Flickr

by Soraya Boyd
Writer, Dandelion Salad
April 13, 2018

This June will mark 12 years of a crushing and unlawful land, air and sea Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Chris Hedges: The Hidden Tragedy of the Vietnam War

Image by Adam Jones via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Jan 2, 2017

On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges discusses the hidden tragedy of the Vietnam War with author of “Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam”. Nick Turse uncovered documents that revealed systematic violence against civilians extending beyond the massacre at My Lai. They look back at Vietnam to understand what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the civilian cost that accompanied our defeat in Vietnam.

Abby Martin: 100 Years of US Troops as Lab Rats

Image by Kate Tomlinson via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

teleSUR English on May 23, 2016

On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.” This pledge is hammered into the American psyche at every turn. But there is a hidden, dark history that shows that the politicians are in fact no friend to service members–but their greatest enemy. An easy way to prove this truth is to look at how they so quickly betray and abandon their soldiers after purposely ruining their lives, and even after using them as literal lab rats.

Chris Hedges: Why the Brutalized Become Brutal

Image by Dean Terry via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

teleSUR English on Apr 4, 2016

In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews two veterans of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael Hanes and Rory Fanning. They lament the brutality of the American military presence, which they say creates the conditions for terrorism and fuels attacks in places like Brussels. They also speak out about the painful struggle of coping with PTSD, and the alienation faced by many soldiers when they come home.

Radical Peace: People Refusing War, Ch. 15: Coming Home by William T. Hathaway

Image by Gary Lund via Flickr

Warning: for mature readers only

by William T. Hathaway
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Germany
August 21, 2015

Coming Home
From the book
Radical Peace: People Refusing War
By William T. Hathaway
Published by Trine Day

RADICAL PEACE is a collection of reports from antiwar activists, the true stories of their efforts to change our warrior culture. In this chapter a mother tells of her son’s return from combat. She wishes to remain anonymous.

Chris Hedges: War is a Drug

Dandelion Salad

Sent to DS by David Gutnick, CBC radio

with Chris Hedges

CBC Radio’s Ideas
By David Gutnick
Paul Kennedy, interviewer
February 9, 2015

Chris Hedges (Photo credit: Dandelion Salad)

Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges spent decades as a war correspondent for the New York Times and other publications before the suffering he witnessed became too much to bear.

Now he is minister of social witness and prison ministry at the Second Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a popular public speaker, and an author and freelance columnist who does not shy away from controversy.

“Moral Injury”–One Military Veteran Kills Teenager, Another Kills Himself by Shepherd Bliss

by Shepherd Bliss
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Santa Rosa, California
December 12, 2013

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

Thirteen-year-old Andy Lopez was killed by sheriff’s deputy Erick Gelhaus on October 22, as the boy walked home in his Latino neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California. The Iraq War veteran claims he mistook the eighth-grader’s toy rifle for a real one.

A month later another Army vet, Paul Duffy, took his own life nearby. Duffy, as some friends called him, was found by his wife hanging from a rope in the writer’s cabin he had built outside his Tomales home by the Pacific Ocean.

Ask Why? by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
July 2, 2013

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

“I am sorry that it has come to this.” Thus began the searing suicide note by 30-year-old Iraq War veteran, Daniel Somers on June 10, 2013 to his wife and family.

On the other side of the violent divide are video messages from the suicide bombers – the oft-described “weapon of the weak” against U.S. soldiers and their presumed local collaborators.

In 2012 suicide by active duty American soldiers exceeded the number of U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan. Why?

Kill Anything That Moves by Chris Hedges + Moyers and Company: Nick Turse Describes the Real Vietnam War

by Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
March 12, 2013

Psychological Warfare in Palestine–Gaza’s Children Haunted by Nightmare of War

Image by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation/TURKEY via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews·Dec 22, 2012

UNICEF report indicates vast majority of Gaza’s children are struggling to cope with war trauma and PTSD. This is the first of a two part series on the psychological toll the war and siege has taken on Gaza’s most vulnerable population. TRNN explores the Oum el Qurra school in the Tar el Hawa neighborhood in Gaza city where many of the students were still being pulled out of class for counseling one month after Israel’s eight day assault.

Mental health workers, psychologists and therapists are overwhelmed by lack of resources. The second part will explore what methods are being used to treat, rehabilitate and recover children and adults from war trauma.

Ahmed Deeb and Nosier Abdullah contributed to this report.

Tom Waits: Hell Broke Luce

Image by joka2000 via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Aug 6, 2012 by antirecords

Directed By Matt Mahurin

“Hell Broke Luce” from the album Bad As Me, Anti Records 2011

http://www.tomwaits.com

Rick Rozoff: Obama’s attitude main threat to world peace

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
Stop NATO-Opposition to global militarism
February 4, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Press TV
February 4, 2012

An American anti-war activist says the majority of U.S. citizens are against their country’s military interventions across the globe or war threats against other countries including Iran.