Good News Twice in One Day

Early this morning—before I went out to work on the patio-fence with more than one gate project that I’m building from scratch—I checked my e-mail and discovered that my suspense-thriller, Running with the Enemy, had been awarded an Honorable Mention in General Fiction at the 2103 New York Book Festival.

A good way to start the day.

Fast forward several hours—I finished working on the project about 3:00 pm, took a shower, and then logged-on to check my e-mail only to discover that Running with the Enemy had been named Runner Up (2nd Place) in General Fiction at the 2013 Beach Book Festival.

A good way to end the day.

In twelve days on June 22, the 2013 New York Book Festival will be held at the Radisson Martinique on Broadway in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan—just steps from the Empire State Building.

When Running with the Enemy picked up its first honorable mention at the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival, I attended the free seminars and the private award ceremony, but I’m not planning on buying a ticket to fly to New York at this late date. With the lowest nightly rate for the Radisson at $385.00 and flights to New York from San Francisco costing $583 – $2,072 (depending on the airline you book a flight with), I’m staying home. The grand prize winner wins $1,500, but an honorable mention and a runner-up do not come with a cash prize.

However, if you live near New York and you are a writer, poet, author and/or an avid reader, you may want to take advantage of the free seminars. The San Francisco event was well worth my time, and I’m planning on going next year. The price of a BART ticket to ride into San Francisco from where we live is about $10 round trip.

NEW YORK BOOK FESTIVAL DAY SCHEDULE
– this event is free –

11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. The Art of Marketing and Promotion – An examination of what it takes to get your book noticed in a crowded marketplace.
1:00 p.m.-2:10 p.m. Writing About Your Life – “Write what you know” is one of the most debated axioms of an author’s life. A panel that drew on their experiences and career paths discusses what it takes to put it all down in book form.
2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Children’s Books in a Modern Age – Authors/publishers of award-winning books from the San Francisco Book Festival talk about their books and the market.
Panelists:
3:40 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Dr. Neal Hall – the poetry winner of the San Francisco/New York/New England/Paris and Los Angeles festivals reads from his work and answers questions.
4:10 p.m.-4:45 p.m. The Future of Books – The rise of eBooks, the shrinking retail scene, the consolidation of big publishing and the explosion of the online world. A discussion on where everything appears to be heading and how you can leverage these developments.
4:45 to 5 p.m. A Conversation with the New York Book Festival grand prize winner

The grand-prize winner of the 2013 New York Book Festival was Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora by Emily Raboteau (Atlantic Monthly Press). The Rainbow Troops by Andrea Hirata was the winner of the general-fiction category and it was first published in Indonesia in 2005 selling more than five-million copies. The English translation of Hirata’s novel was published by Sarah Crichton Books (February 5, 2013)

The grand-prize winner of the 2013 Beach Book Festival was Inside Linda Lovelace’s Deep Throat by Darin Porter published by Blood Moon Productions, March 12, 2013. The winner of the general-fiction category was Rosi’s Time by Edward Eaton, published by Dragonfly Publishing.

The private-award ceremony will be held June 21 at the Grolier Club in Manhattan.

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 1/2

Starting with the Roman Empire, it has been estimated that Roman Armies suffered about 885,000 casualties over a nine-hundred year period from 400 BC to 500 AD—that adds up to less than 1,000 average combat deaths annually. Source: Body Count of Roman Empire

It seems that the old way of fighting with swords and spears wasn’t as destructive as modern warfare.

The ancient military physicians of the Greeks and the Romans had discovered that certain treatments, such as the application of honey and salt mixtures to wounds—mostly from cuts and jabs—aided the troops to recover.

The decline of the Roman Empire didn’t happen overnight. It took centuries, and when the Roman Empire fell in the 5^th century AD, military medical support was almost gone. With the decline of an empire, also came the end of effective medical care in Europe.

About a thousand years would go by before the rebirth of military medicine in Europe in Spain near the end of the 15^th century after the Spanish drove out the Islamic Moors. During the wars, the Spanish military copied the mobile hospitals used by the Moorish armies.

But in the 15^th century, the introduction of gunpowder in combat caused more casualties, because almost all gunshot wounds became infected due to the injury—clothing, dirt, and other debris was often forced into the wound by the musket ball—and/or from unsanitary conditions following the injury caused by the surgeon probing for the musket ball or shrapnel with unwashed fingers and/or unwashed surgical instruments.

It isn’t as if sterilizing surgical instruments was going to be a new concept. The ancient Chinese, Persians and Egyptians all used methods for water sanitation and disinfection of wounds. In fact, Mercuric chloride was used to prevent infection in wounds by Arabian physicians in the Middle Ages but not in Europe.

In fact, in Europe and American in the 1800’s, infections after surgery caused almost half of the deaths of troops wounded in combat.

Though the number of killed and wounded in the Civil War (1861 – 1865) is not known precisely, most sources agree that the total number killed was between 640,000 and 700,000 resulting in an average of 160,000 – 175,000 combat deaths annually—a massive leap from the average annual combat deaths during the Roman Empire where the well trained and highly disciplined Roman military also had observant medics who wrote down treatments that worked and passed this knowledge on to be used by the next military doctor. In fact, Roman surgeons used about the same tools that American doctors did only one hundred years ago.

However, as it turns out, the bloodiest war in American history was also one of the most influential in battlefield medicine. Civil War surgeons learned fast, and amputation of arms and legs saved more lives from death by infection than any other wartime medical procedure. Sources: Mental Floss.com, American Civil War Casualties and Military Medicine through the Eighteenth Century

Continued on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 in Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 2

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

The Virtual Wall of one War’s Casualties

The Virtual Wall is an index by state and city of Americans who died in the Vietnam War.

When I learned of the Virtual Wall, I visited to see who died from my home towns. I started with Pasadena, California where I was born and lived my first two or three years of life. Then I visited Azusa, California where I lived ages 3 to 6. My last search was for Glendora, California where I lived ages 7 to 19 when I graduated from high school and joined the US Marines.

I counted thirty-one casualties from Pasadena, nine from Azusa and nine from Glendora.

Click on the link above and search for your state and hometown/s to discover who died in Vietnam, and you will be taken to a page that has information about those casualties. Click on an individual’s name and discover more about that person.

Americans who joined the US Military in Glendora, California—who may have attended Glendora High School—and who died in Vietnam were Cummings Jr, Liptak, Smith, Kuebel, Rowles, Talley, Leake Jr, Saunders and Willard Jr.

All of these combat casualties were born within a few years of my birth year so we may have been in the same classrooms and walked in the hallways between classes.

When I worked in the high school library as a student aide, I may have helped one of them find a book for a class report.

The last casualty on the list— Willard Jr—served in the US Marines in the 1^st Marine Division—the same division I served in while in Vietnam in 1966. Willard died a few months after I left the combat zone. Liptak, Talley and Kuebel were also Marines who enlisted from Glendora, California.

Sobering thoughts that my name could have been on that list too.

Discover The Creative Writing Class at war with the Vietnam Vet

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

“Divine Justice” reviewed

I’m a fan of David Baldacci’s Camel Club series, and I haven’t read one of his books with my eyes, but I’ve listened to them on unabridged audio books while driving. In fact, I’ve been listening to audio book for decades. I also read tree books at home. I’d like to read more e-books but the two Kindles I have bought keep telling me that I’m not who I am and won’t let me read the books I buy.

The Camel Club has four members who are obsessively loyal to each other, and if the group has a leader, it’s the man who goes by the name of Oliver Stone. His real name is John Carr and before he was reborn as Oliver Stone, he served in the US military and is a combat veteran who was recruited by the CIA to become a US government assassin—maybe the best assassin that ever lived, but as Oliver Stone he is a thorn in the side of men in the government who abuse their power.

Baldacci never served in the U.S. Military but that has not stopped me from enjoying his novels. The reason I enjoy these books is because John Carr aka Oliver Stone is a man with a conscience, and he is loyal to those who are loyal to him. He will die to protect his friends.

To date, I’ve listened to three of the five books in this series: “The Camel Club,” “Hell’s Corner,” and now “Divine Justice”. The remaining two are on my—to listen to or read list—“The Collectors” and “Stone Cold”.

In “Divine Justice,” John Carr (aka: Oliver Stone) has become the most wanted man in America after he assassinates a powerful senator and America’s intelligence chief—these are the men who destroyed his life by murdering his wife years earlier and then taking his young daughter from him.

After the two-shot assassinations—one shot for each target—Carr is on the run. To escape, he takes an Amtrak train toward New Orleans, but his plans change drastically when he comes to the assistance of a young man who is being beat up by three bullies. Carr beats up the bullies and then befriends the young man, who seems to have a huge unfriendly chip on his shoulder.

This takes Carr to the remote coal-mining town of Divine, Virginia where he finds himself once again helping the victims of evil, powerful and corrupt men, but Carr also finds unexpected love—giving him a second chance at life—that is if he can stay alive and protect the woman he has fallen in love with, because she is a target too.

But Oliver Stone is not alone. The other members of the Camel Club are coming to help by shadowing Joe Knox, the government agent who has been sent to find Carr and deliver him to his executioner.

Will the Camel Club make it in time to save Stone/Carr? I’m not going to spoil the story, but I will recommend this series of books if you enjoy thriller-suspense novels that I think will keep you wanting more.

Discover A Night at the “Well of Purity”

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

The Different Faces of War

We are at war every day, and I’m not talking about Afghanistan. As an author, I know that there are many different types of conflict—there is man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself.

When we think of war, we often think of World War I, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and we ignore the other battles fought daily all over the world.

For example, the tornado in Oklahoma. That was a battle against nature and it was just as devastating as combat in Afghanistan. In Oklahoma—in sixteen minutes—more than fifty died and twenty were children.

Natural disasters are battles in man’s unending war against nature. For a few examples:

the tropical cyclone that hit Galveston in 1900 caused 6,000 – 12,000 fatalities.

In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake killed 3,000 – 6,000.

In 2004, an Indian Ocean earthquake caused a tidal wave that killed 230,000 people.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people.

Then there is the war with viruses—man vs. nature—such as the flu. For example, the CDC estimates that from the 1976-77 to the 2006-07 flu season, flu-associated deaths ranged from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people (annually).

On January 18, 2013 Bloomberg reported, the flu season, which has now been at epidemic levels for two straight weeks, may result in 36,000 deaths, said William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

Top FIVE Deadliest Diseases – this video is an entertaining way to scare yourself to death

For another example, there is the war raging on America’s roads every minute of every day. The US Census says that in 2009 alone, there were 35.9 thousand deaths from motor vehicle accidents and that was a low year. In fact, from 1990 to 2009, about 740,000 people lost their lives in vehicle accidents (about 39,000 annually).

In 2012, The Washington Post reported that “The U.S. has far more gun-related killings than any other developed country.” In fact, The U.S. gun murder rate is about 20 times the average for all other developed countries.

How many gun deaths are there in the US every year?

In 2011 alone, the figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 31,940 people died in the United States from gun injuries.

In 2010 that number was 31,328

In 2009 it was 31,177

In 2007 it was 31,224

In 2004 it was 29,569.

Breaking down deaths from firearms in 2011:

Accidental discharge = 851

Suicide = 19,766 (man vs. himself) Note: the CDC says that the total number of suicides from all methods was 38,364 for just 2011.

Homicide = 11,101

Undetermined Intent = 222

By comparison, in World War I, the United States had 53,401 combat deaths (1917-1918) or 26,700 annually.

In World War II there were 291,557 combat deaths (1941-1945) or 58,311 annually.

In the Korean War there were 33,686 combat deaths (1951 – 1953) or 11,229 annually.

In Vietnam there were 47,424 (1955-1975) or 2,371 annually.

In Afghanistan there have been 2,012 combat deaths (2001-present) or 168 annually.

In Iraq there were 3,542 combat deaths (2003-2011) or 443 annually.

Why do we hear so much about combat deaths and very little about highway deaths, suicide deaths, deaths by virus, natural-disaster deaths, and firearm deaths?

The fatal casualty numbers for Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq show us that the odds of dying a violent death in the United States are much higher than in a combat zone. It seems to me that we’d be safer joining the Army or the Marines and going off to fight in one of America’s wars.

Ignoring the numbers, why is death in combat considered more dramatic and devastating than someone going out to buy a quart of milk and dying in an accident on an American road or accidentally shooting himself cleaning a Smith and Wesson revolver while watching Dancing with the Stars?

Discover how a U.S. Marine Deals with his PTSD through Ballet

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Coming Home

I flew to Okinawa in late December 2005 and spent the New Year inside a Quonset hut during heavy rain and a typhoon warning. A few weeks later, we boarded a troop transport and my battalion shipped out to Chu Lei, Vietnam.

Fast forward to December 2006, and I was deep underground in a communications bunker. It was 2:00 am and I was alone when I heard the clatter of feet running down the stairs, slowing at the grenade trap and then moving fast again.

At the time, I was sitting in front of the radio set leaning back in a chair. Then another radio operator burst through the door. When I heard “We’re going home,” I fell over backwards and landed with a crash.

With little warning—before noon—three of us were on a flight to Da Nang where we boarded a civilian airliner and flew home to land at LAX fourteen hours later. After being processed, I rented a Mustang using my military driver’s license and headed home to the San Gabriel Valley south of Los Angeles.

It was three in the morning when I pulled into the driveway of my parent’s house. I was twenty-one. I didn’t have a wife, girlfriend or child. I had an older brother and sister who were married and had their own homes.

There was a light on in my father’s half bath. I knew that he was in there shaving and getting ready to go to work.

I rang the doorbell and heard him say, “Who the hell could that be at this hour?”

When the door opened, half of my dad’s face was covered in shaving cream. He was wearing his work pants and a T-shirt. Without saying a word, he stared in stunned shock, then spun around and ran through the house shouting for my mother, who was still in bed sleeping. Then I heard her surprised voice and feet rushing down the hall to the kitchen.

That was my homecoming from war.

Today, returning from war can be a very different experience, but the emotions are the same. Now homecomings are often filmed and posted on You Tube—something impossible in 1966. And when I watch them, which I do, my eyes fill with tears and I remember that early morning in December 1966 when my dad opened the kitchen door.

Discover The Sniper and the Dear-John letter

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

2013 San Francisco Book Festival Award Winners

Running with the Enemy by Lloyd Lofthouse was awarded an honorable mention in general fiction at the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival.

The winner of the general fiction category went to John Irving’s In One Person published by Simon & Schuster, and the grand prize was awarded to The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen & Live Without Regret by Richie Norton with Natalie Norton — Shadow Mountain Publishing.

John Irving won the National Book Award in 1980 for The World According to Garp, and he received an O. Henry Award in 1981 for the short story “Interior Space. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules.

Richard Norton, the grand prize winner of the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival, is the CEO of Global Consulting Circle. He is a sought after speaker and consultant for the corporate growth and personal development industries. Norton has shared the stage with bestselling authors such as Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Kevin Rollins, former CEO of Dell Computers.

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning My Splendid Concubine and Running with the Enemy. His short story, A Night at the ‘Well of Purity’ was named a finalist in the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards. Anchee Min, Lloyd’s wife, is the author of Red Azalea, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year—in addition to national bestsellers Becoming Madame Mao and Empress Orchid, which was a finalist for the British Book Awards. Min’s memoir, the sequel to Red Azalea—The Cooked Seed—will be released May 7, 2013.

Discover a new world of Publishing–-the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival Event

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran,
is the award winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition].

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW

Returning from Combat with PTSD – the impact on family

I returned from Vietnam late December of 1966, and I did not talk about the war for years. Instead I kept it locked in my head, but I slept with a K-BAR that had a seven-inch blade. The reason I did not sleep with a pistol was because I feared shooting my wife.

I drank too much. I had an explosive temper. When the anger overwhelmed, instead of hitting her, I punched holes in the drywall and drank more.

After falling asleep at night, the flashbacks were vivid, violent and real. There were times that I carried a loaded rifle through the house checking the doors and windows to secure the perimeter. Sometimes I still do. All it takes is an unexpected noise and out comes a loaded weapon and I cannot rest until I know my family is safe.

After the first divorce in 1979, I stopped drinking and fight to contain the anger, and—at the time—most of us still didn’t know what PTSD was. It helped that I started writing about my time in Vietnam in the MFA program I started at Cal Poly, Pomona causing me to open up and talk about what I experienced in the war.

There is no cure for PTSD, but with understanding, the afflicted might be able to manage the trauma better and avoid destroying families and lives. For sure, drugs and alcohol are a bad mix with PTSD.

The impact of PTSD on families is shocking. “Research that has examined the effect of PTSD on intimate relationships reveals severe and pervasive negative effects on marital adjustment, general family functioning, and the mental health of partners.

“These negative effects result in such problems as compromised parenting, family violence, divorce, sexual problems, aggression and caregiver burden.

“About 38% of Vietnam veteran marriages failed within six months of returning from the war. The overall divorce rate among Vietnam veterans is significantly higher than the general population.” Source: ptsd.va.gov

Impact on family

The divorce rate among Afghanistan, Iraq War Vets increased 42% throughout the wars.

A July 2010 report found that child abuse in Army families has been three times higher in homes from which a parent was deployed, for example. From 2001 through 2011, alcohol use associated with physical domestic violence in Army families increased by 54%, and with child abuse by 40%. Source: cost of war.org

In addition, Expedition Balance.org says, “It’s harder for veterans with PTSD to hold jobs.

“The VA reported that more than 130,000 veterans were homeless on any night.

“Studies show that families where a parent has PTSD are characterized by increased anxiety, unhappiness, marital problems and behavioral problems among children.

“People with PTSD are more likely to have problems with drugs and/or alcohol.

“People who suffer from PTSD and depression are significantly more like to take their own lives.

“Female veterans have a higher rate of military sexual trauma. They have a higher rate of divorce and homelessness as well.”

The Huffington Post reported that “Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who struggle with the anger and emotional outbursts of combat trauma are more than twice as likely as other veterans to be arrested for criminal misbehavior … Veterans ‘who perceive that they have control over their future and who have greater psychological resilience’ are better able to refrain from violence, the study said.”

For me, managing the PTSD—so it does not manage me—is a full time job that is not always successful.

In 2011, there were 21.5 million combat veterans in the United States. Source: American Veterans by the Numbers (that is the cost of America’s endless wars)

Discover A Prisoner of War for Life

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran,
is the award winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition].

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Friendly fire thanks to dead batteries

In 1966, we arrived in Vietnam with PRC-10 field radios that we carried on our backs. The batteries were so old, we often carried several that had never been used for back ups when we went on patrols, ambushes, recons and field operations.

The idea was that if one battery was dead, maybe one of the spares worked.

On one night patrol, all three batteries failed and that almost got us killed. I was a field radio operator so I carried the radio and was responsible to call for supporting fire, an extraction for wounded, artillery support, etc.

This patrol went out in the dark and we came back several hours later right before dawn. Because our hill had been hit every night for weeks, we were all nervous and on high alert. The Vietcong would hit and run—fire a rocket, a few sniper rounds, a shoulder fired rocket, or toss a grenade inside the wire and then melt away. One Marine had his head torn off from a rocket that was fired through a bunker’s firing slot. The other Marines in that bunker survived but they watched their buddy get beheaded when the rocket hit him in the face but didn’t explode.

As the radio operator, it was my job to make the last call just before we returned from the night patrol and let them know we were on our way in so they wouldn’t shoot at us.

But when all three of the batteries were dead, there was no way to call in. We had to go in cold.

The sergeant in charge said we couldn’t make a sound, because we had to get close enough to the wire so his voice could be heard.

PRC-10

There was a spring on the other side of the wire that fed a creek and we walked in that creek careful to make not one sound. Then one Marine tripped and as he hit the ground made a loud clattering noise. A heart beat later, we were all sucking that creak water.

Without hesitation, the bunkers on the other side of the wire inside our base camp opened fire on us with fifty calibers. We lay in that stream as the tracers shot inches above our heads. The sergeant shouted “cease fire”.

“How do we know it’s really you and not a trick,” the reply came. “Why didn’t you use the radio?”

“The batteries are all dead,” I called. “Call the communication bunker and ask for the name of the radio operator who was assigned to this patrol. How would the gooks know that?”

“And what is your name?”

I called it out and a few minutes later we were given the okay to stand up and walk one-by-one inside the wire.

The PRC-10 was first used in 1951 during the Korean War. The AN/PRC 25 replaced it in 1962, but the Marines were usually the last to get new equipment. We had no idea how old those batteries were but we were eating C-rations that were stamped 1945 so I think those batteries were probably from the early 1950s and had been in storage for almost fifteen years. Before I was rotated out of Vietnam in December 1966, the PRC-10 was replaced with the 25 that was several pounds lighter and had much newer batteries.

Discover Vietnam Rations and Nutrition Today

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran,
is the award winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition].

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Censored but not Silenced: Part 5/5

Disclaimer: Before I conclude this series, I want to make it clear that I support the existence of Israel and its right to defend itself with America’s help, but I do not believe in the neoconservative political agenda of nation building by exporting democracy using America’s troops, bullets and bombs.

But—at the same time—I do not think it is a good idea to allow Iran to develop the bomb. If Iran wasn’t using its nuclear program, as it claims—to build nuclear bombs—why not follow China’s example and build thorium reactors that do not need weapons grade plutonium to generate electricity, but that is another topic. If you are interested, I recommend reading China blazes trail for ‘clean’ nuclear power from thorium.

Does that mean I support America going to war against Iran? Yes, but not to build a democracy but to make sure Iran never has a nuclear weapon. There are too many of these bombs already. Instead of building more, we should be dismantling them, because a conventional war isn’t as total as nuclear war.

Keep in mind that today’s nuclear weapons are much more devastating than what was dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. If you have no concept of that horror, I refer you to this site where there is an info-graphic that will show you. Click on Ingeniously Charting The Horrifying Power of Today’s Nuclear Bombs.

In addition, there are 17,300 of these modern nuclear weapons stockpiled by nine countries: Russia has 8,500; the United States 7,700; France 300; China 240; United Kingdom 225; Pakistan 90 – 110; India 80 – 100; Israel 60 – 80, and North Korea has less than 10. Source: Ploughshares.org: World Nuclear Stockpile Report

_______________

Censored but not Silenced continued:

Neoconservatism is a branch of American conservatism that advocates assertive promotion of democracy, and American national interest in international affairs including by military means. Neoconservatives also believe it is okay to lie to the public to achieve their political agendas—and I think that lies and any form of censorship go hand in hand.

To follow this reasoning further, Rupert Murdock, a billionaire and a known neoconservative has “hired Jews as his closest advisers. His support for Israel has been absolute. Arguably, it is his support for Israel, and for neoconism in general (for many years, he owned and funded the losses of the Weekly Standard), that helped solidify rightwing support for Israel.” Source: The Guardian.co.uk

Is it possible that Murdock—or other wealthy neoconservatives—are supplying the money behind the IMED where Julie Lenarz is a fellow?

Before answering that question, you may want to read a post by Andrés Perez-Alonso, Neoconservatism, the Israeli Lobby, and other Power Relations, on a Website/Blog that has 1,536 linked sites compared to the 38 linked Julie’s Think Tank.

Andrés says, “The historical neoconservative commitment to Israel has been so pronounced that even traditional conservatives like Russell Kirk have charged them with mistaking ‘Tel Aviv for the capital of the United States’.”

This—of course—bring me to the fourth group with another political agenda that would do almost anything for an American war in Iraq and then later in Iran. This political agenda is based on an old proverb that is both ironically Arabic in addition to being Chinese. It is a foreign policy doctrine commonly used to interact with a significant enemy through an intermediary rather than through direct confrontation.

The proverb says: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

What better way to defend the survival of Israel than to have the only super power on the earth wage wars in the Middle East against your enemies while manipulating the flames of conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites in addition to working behind the scenes to encourage an Arab Spring that has led to clashes between Islamic factions and/or rebellions and civil wars in Muslim countries like those in Libya, Syria, and Egypt. I would not be surprised if a political faction in Israel was behind the Lebanese Civil War that raged for fifteen years. An Islamic Middle East at war with each other and/or at war with America is not focused on the destruction of Israel. Instead of Blood for Oil, this is American Blood traded for Israel’s survival.

Return to Censored but not Silenced: Part 4 or start with Part 1

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of The Concubine Saga.

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy, a suspense thriller. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Follow”.

The Soulful Veteran's Blog

Living with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and surviving.

Category Archives: Lloyd Lofthouse

Good News Twice in One Day

Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 1/2

“Divine Justice” reviewed

The Different Faces of War

Coming Home

2013 San Francisco Book Festival Award Winners

Returning from Combat with PTSD – the impact on family

Friendly fire thanks to dead batteries

Censored but not Silenced: Part 5/5