Of Hard Boards

This article was originally published here:  http://whatsleftofreligion.com/2016/07/25/military-occupations-effects/ The Nature of Military Occupation Military occupations are never tolerated by the occupied. The British Armed Forces were deployed in Northern Ireland in 1969 at the request of the Unionist Government of Northern Ireland. These soldiers were welcomed by the Catholic population of Ireland in response to Protestant riots and terrorism against Catholic marches for civil rights at the time. However, by 1971 the same Catholics, organized as the IRA, were fighting the British in a brutal campaign of terrorism. From Wikipedia’s article Provisional Irish Republican Army : … the IRA was responsible for 1,768 deaths, about 47% of the total conflict deaths. Of these, 934 (about 52%) were members of the British security forces, while 639 (about 36%) were civilians (including 61 former members of the security forces). Source: David McKittrick et al. Lost Lives: The Stori...

At a time when trust in the American news media is at historic lows, The Forever War is a demonstration of the invaluable journalism that is so necessary for being informed about the world and makes democracy possible. Before reading this book I knew almost nothing about my country’s war in Iraq and I didn’t know how little I knew. The way the US was operating in Iraq, its agendas and processes, the personalities entrusted with the success or failure of the project, the enemies we faced, the experience of Iraqi civilians caught in the conflict, the potential or lack thereof for installing a Democracy in the wake of Saddam Hussein, the reality of the conflict on the ground, the causalities of the conflict, the experience of our troops, etc.  The book covers the initial invasion of Iraq until 2008, so it doesn't speak directly to the rise of ISIS in Iraq, but it gives invaluable context necessary for understanding why ISIS happened. The book opens with the author’s experien...