August 10
GUEST: Norman Solomon, American journalist, media
critic, activist, and executive director of the media watch
group Institute for Public Accuracy, talks about his latest
book: War Made Invisible:
How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine.
War
Made Invisible - Book Review
I also wrote a book review for War Made Invisible:
"Well researched history of our endless wars.
Why aren't more citizens horrified at America's history of wars over the last seventy years? This book explains why; the military industrial complex has gotten very good at hiding the damage and covering up the dead. Norman Solomon shows us just how it's done, and what we can do about it now."
One can't read this book without rethinking the role our country has played in the world since WW II. That's why people should read it. There is no escaping the fact that most of our wars since then have been colonial occupations, with all the racism and environmental destruction that follows. Our warlike intentions were quite evident in our invasions of Korea and Vietnam. And sense then, we have spread our military power to every nook and cranny of the globe.
Can we the people stop this momentum? For a time in the 1960s I thought that was possible. Our soldiers weren't fighting anymore. In fact, they were sometimes killing their own officers. Drafted and sent to Korea in 1968, I considered myself part of the resistance. And when the colonel of Seventh Aviation Battalion told me that if we were in Vietnam, he would pull out his pistol and shoot me, I told him, "If we were in Vietnam, you would be dead already." I think he knew I was right. The battalion hated him and was sick of the war.
So I give credit to the GIs who refused to go to Vietnam and went to jail instead. And they were only the tip of the iceberg. There is no way the US could win a war with an army that refused to fight. That's why I am a proud member of Veterans For Peace.
