A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Why would a war with Iran be a terrible idea? Few veterans cherish a romantic remembrance of war. War is awful. When nations seek to settle their differences by force of arms a million tragedies ensue. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. ~ John McCain, 1999 Why do I think that a war with Iran is a terrible idea? Other than the fact that Iran, aka the Islamic Republic of Iran, has not directly attacked the United States of America or its military forces in the Persian Gulf, a war with the second-largest country in the Middle East is a terrible idea because it will be extremely destructive, expensive (both in economic and human terms), and may have unwanted consequences for the U.S. and the world in general. Many Americans who say the opposite, i.e. that a war with Iran is not only a good idea but ...

© 2005 Picador Books. Book cover photo credit: © Benjamin Lowy When the U.S. 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division crossed the border between Kuwait and Iraq on the morning of March 20, 2003 as part of the Army's V Corps at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Washington Post reporter Rick Atkinson was one of the media pool members "embedded" with Maj. Gen. David Petraeus' headquarters. At the time, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author ( An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943 )  was still a senior editor at the Post and was chosen to observe the legendary division that had participated in many famous campaigns since its creation as a parachute unit during the Second World War. Now, having traded in their airplanes for helicopters as far back as the Vietnam War, the Screaming Eagles were on their way north to Baghdad, 12 years after the end of the first Persian Gulf War. Atkinson was no stranger to either the Army or reporting about the military. His fa...

Pros:  Annie Harper's humor; nice insights into a young teacher's life Cons:  It didn't bug me, but some readers may get tired of the footnotes-as-narrative tool technique. Ask anyone who knows me well - or read enough of my online missives and musings - about my reading habits, and you'll probably come away with the impression that I don't read too many books written by women unless they are  Star Trek  or  Star Wars  authors. And for the most part, your impression would be proven  mostly  correct; I tend to gravitate more toward fiction that echoes my love of military history and technology (I've got a pile of novels by Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts, Harold Coyle and Larry Bond in my bookshelves).  I also like non-fiction books that reflect my interest in world affairs, politics and geography/travel. But among my many volumes about war, espionage and escapist movie tie-ins, you'll be surprised to find a few b...

The Hurt Locker (2009) There is, apparently, a simple rule-of-thumb (at least for those folks who keep track of these things) that war movies, no matter how well-made they may be, simply do not attract huge audiences to theaters in times of war. Certainly, people who are old enough to remember World War II and its immediate aftermath can make a good case that this is not always the case and that many of them, whether they were adults or kids at the time, watched movies such as  Air Force, Back to Bataan, Guadalcanal Diary, Sahara, The Flying Tigers  and  A Walk in the Sun , not to mention the various newsreels and government-produced propaganda films. That having been said, movies about America's post-World War II conflicts made while the bullets were flying and the soldiers, sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and Air Force personnel were in harm's way often flopped or were less-than-critically acclaimed.  (John Wayne's  The Green Berets  may be liked b...