Tag: Iraq

Sometimes Doves Think Like Hawks

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn injustice4 Comments

During the 1960s, the so-called “flower children” suggested that we sit down with our worst enemies and sing songs, share a meal, have a few beers or maybe some pot, and “give peace a chance.” While I was (and still am) a pacifist, that approach sounded naive and unworkable.

It’s easy when a war is far away to say, that’s a civil war and should be decided by the people who live there. It’s harder to say that when the war is on your doorstep or the news is broadcasting a steady stream of information about the kinds of atrocities now being perpetrated by ISIS in northern Iraq in the name of their religious and cultural views.

Like most doves, I have a few hot buttons that make me think more like a hawk. I have no patience when it comes to crimes against women (stoning, mutilation, honor killings) or crimes against peoples (such as the Yazidi) based on the absurd, stone-age belief that one’s god wants them to do such things. It’s especially sad for a dove whose beliefs are based on a spiritual foundation, to see the horror committed by others in the name of a religion.

Generally, I’m tolerant of other religions and really feel no missionary zeal whatsoever to tell people who are worshiping their god to stop doing it and come worship my god. I don’t know why so many people care about the spiritual practices of others.

I grow intolerant, though, when anyone says their god is telling them to kill me or torture me. I see no spiritual component whatsoever in such attitudes and as an angry dove, I quickly think “those people are worshiping a misguided tradition rather than a god.” And, as a dove who is being pushed by circumstance to think like a hawk, I think that if I were flying a drone over a bunch of men about to kill women and chidren for purportedly religious reasons, I would fire a Hellfire missile.

The issues, of course, are larger than one band of religious thugs, and one or two Hellfire missiles. We cannot kill every ISIS thug. And right now, we don’t know how to change their minds. Perhaps some day we will figure out what makes them tick and how to stop it. Until then, the atrocities are mounting up in real time and they require us, I think, to take a pragmatic look at how we should respond as civilized and sympathetic people.

Doing little or nothing should not be the default answer to ethnic cleansing against entire peoples or faith-based crimes against women.

–Malcolm

 

Contest: Holding Each Elephant’s Tail: Voices from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writing4 Comments

from Missouri Warrior Writers Project:

Holding Each Elephant’s Tail:  Voices from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

The Missouri Warrior Writers Project, in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council, is pleased to announce a contest and call for submissions for its national anthology of writing by veterans and active military service personnel of Afghanistan and Iraq about their wartime experience.  This experience includes deployments and those who have never been deployed.  Transition back into civilian life is also a topic of interest for this anthology. The contest will award 250.00 each to the top entries in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.  All entries will be considered for publication in the anthology.  There is no entry fee.  Guidelines are listed below:

-Prose limited to 5000 words. Up to 3 poems (max 5 pages). Submissions that exceed these limits will be disqualified.

– Deadline December 30, 2011. Winners will be announced by April 1, 2012.

– There is no entry fee for submission, but submissions must be limited to one per person per genera

– Manuscripts must be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word document. (Save with a *.doc extension). Please combine all poems into one document and use first poem as title.   Send to:  submissions@mowarriorwriters.com

-Put your name and contact information on the first page of your submission document and nowhere else within the manuscript.

-Please include a brief (75 words or less) bio with your submission.

-Work previously published will be considered, but new work is preferred.

-Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. (This will avoid potentially awkward situations.)

-Southeast Missouri State University Press acquires first-time North American rights for previously unpublished work. After publication, all rights revert to the author and the work may be reprinted as long as appropriate acknowledgement to the anthology is made. All entries will be considered for publication.

JUDGES:  Brian Turner, poetry.  Mark Bowden, nonfiction.  William Pancoast, fiction.

The anthology will be released  on Armed Forces Day, 2012.

Contact submissions@mowarriorwriters.com for additional information

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What a great project and a wonderful idea for an anthology.

—Malcolm

Review: ‘The Witch of Babylon’

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, reviews11 Comments

The Witch Of BabylonThe Witch Of Babylon by D.J. McIntosh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

D. J. McIntosh begins her planned Mesopotamian Trilogy with the page-turner “The Witch of Babylon” about a prospective royal treasure trove that may have been hidden away when the city of Nineveh fell in 612 B.C. Written in the ancient-secrets-modern-adventures style of fiction pioneered by Katherine Neville in “The Eight,” McIntosh’s story focuses on New York antiquities dealer John Madison’s sudden involvement in a ruthless treasure hunt for gold and gems in war-torn Iraq in 2003.

John’s late brother Stephen, a specialist in Assyrian archeology, may have been holding an engraving saved from looters at Iraq’s National Museum. After Hal Vanderlin purportedly steals the engraving, Hal dies of mysterious causes, giving opposing groups of treasure hunters the impression that John either has the artifact or knows how to find it.

Like other novels in this genre by Neville, Dan Brown and Raymond Khoury, “The Witch of Babylon’s” plot only makes sense to readers as a series of experts throughout the story continuously discuss (and sometimes lecture about) the relevant myths, history and arcane wisdom. This trademark of the genre can, at times, make readers wonder if they’re reading ancient history or modern fiction. In spite this back-story information, McIntosh keeps her plot moving. John Madison, who has had no time to come to terms with his brother’s death in an automobile accident, is always in danger; he can never be quite sure which of the other players in this deadly game are the good, the bad, or the ugly.

“The Witch of Babylon” features interlocking plots within plots from ancient Nineveh to Baghdad to New York City. The ancient history, which involves one of the Bible’s minor prophets, is just as compelling as the modern tragedy of antiquities looting in war-torn countries. Like his late brother, John believes the engraving belongs in a museum. Most of the other characters only see dollar signs and will kill anyone who gets in their way.
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You can learn more about the novel, the history and the problem of antiquities looting on the book’s website.

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of “Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey,” “The Sun Singer” and “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire.”  His new novel “Sarabande” will be released this fall.