Interview conducted by Antiwar Radio producer Angela Keaton.
Michael Anthony, author of Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq, discusses the military’s neglect of suicidal soldiers, officers more interested in self-promotion than doing their jobs, veterans’ struggles with family life and homelessness and how the process of becoming a man in the military sometimes involves refusing orders.
MP3 here. (14:10)
Michael Anthony is the author of Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq. After graduating high school, Michael joined the Army Reserves, went through basic training, and then went through job training to become an Operating Room Medic. One year later he returned home and enrolled in college to begin his first semester. Almost immediately upon finishing his first semester he was shipped off to Wisconsin to train for four months before he would leave and spend his next year in Iraq. Michael is now back in the States and working toward a Bachelor’s Degree in creative writing.
Michael Prysner and James Circello, staff members of March Forward!, an antiwar organization for active duty soldiers and veterans, discuss the bigotry ingrained in military culture that dehumanizes the enemy du jour, the class struggle between enlisted soldiers and officers, the intentional “draw fire” missions that boost an officer’s career while endangering troops, double-dipping retired generals who get paid to propagandize for more war, the continued deployment of soldiers with PTSD and the Pentagon’s fear of a mass GI desertion.
MP3 here. (30:09)
Will Grigg, author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses the RAND Corporation’s Army-commissioned study for a militarized “Stability Police Force,” the attempted legalized circumvention of Posse Comitatus and the end of distinction between civilian and military law enforcement, the slippery slope from a civilian criminal suspect to an enemy combatant and the tyrannical reign of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
MP3 here. (40:08)
