“We New Yorkers see more death and violence than most soldiers do, grow a thick chitin on our backs, grimace like a rat and learn to do a disappearing act. Long ago we outgrew the need to be blowhards about our masculinity; we leave that to the Alaskans and Texans, who have more time for it.” NeedsLongGrowsViolenceSoldierDisappearMore TimeThickLong AgoRatsMasculinityNew YorkersTexanGrimaceBlowhardsAlaskans Book:Walking the Dead Diamond River Source: Walking the Dead Diamond River
“It takes a disciplined imagination to acknowledge that the less personal savageries of bombs, missiles, artillery and heavy weapons are, to those blown to smithereens, also barbaric. The main horror of what the coalition is doing is not a matter of the occasional soldier who, in the heat of battle, commits a war crime, but the steady destruction rained on cities, villages, the Iraqi people. This violence is wreaked calmly, from a distance, within the rules of engagement. The war itself is the American war crime.” PeopleWarMatterPoliticalImaginationCitiesViolenceCrimeHorrorBattleWeaponsDestructionDistanceSoldierHeavyCommitAcknowledgeHeatBombsVillageEngagementSteadyOccasionalMissilesCoalitionsSavageryBarbaricWar CrimesArtilleryAmerican WarRules Of Engagement Author:James Carroll
“We have to enforce the laws we've already got, make sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. I also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. And so what I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally.” TryingWarHandsLawBeliefViolenceShareStreetsConversationWeaponsGunTheaterSoldierIllCriminalsMentally Ill Author:Barack Obama
“[I]t's impossible to evade the fact that Endless War will inevitably degrade the citizenry of the country that engages in it. A country which venerates its military above all other institutions, which demands that its soldiers be spoken of only with religious-like worship, and which continuously indoctrinates its population to believe that endless violence against numerous countries is necessary and just - all by instilling intense fear of the minorities who are the target of that endless violence - will be a country filled with citizens convinced of the virtues and nobility of aggression.” BelieveWarCountryFactsReligiousVirtueViolenceImpossibleMilitaryCitizensDemandWorshipInstitutionsFilledSoldierPopulationConvincedEndlessIntenseMinoritiesTargetAggressionNobilityDegradeCitizenryEndless War Author:Glenn Greenwald
“I met soldiers coming back from war and I was impressed by their description of PTSD, all the symptoms: the outburst of violence, the impossibility to cope with reality anymore, all that stuff.” WarRealityStuffViolenceMetsSoldierDescriptionImpressedSymptomsPtsdComing BackImpossibilityOutburst Author:Alice Winocour