Clipmarks | ruralart's 'war' clips

Faces of the Dead

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:38:48 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Interactive NY Times site featuring each US soldier killed to date. I could not get it to clip anything except the headline.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Casualties of War

Tags: iraq, war, army, military, soldiers

Photographs of War... or Not?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:46:47 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: What a complicated issue.... I can see the military wanting to preserve security and honor the memory of their dead; I can see families not wanting to be traumatized by photos of their loved ones; but I think about all we are still learning from photographs of WWI and WWII... and if there are no photos of the Iraq war, where will that leave historians of the future? Most of the WWI and WWII photographs were taken by military photographers assigned to document the actions. I wonder if there are still military photographers documenting todays "wars"?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images

BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war.

If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.

It is a complex issue, with competing claims often difficult to weigh in an age of instant communication around the globe via the Internet, in which such images can add to the immediate grief of families and the anger of comrades still in the field.

Tags: war, iraq, military, death, photography

Vietnam Hoaxes caused America to bomb its own troops

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:12:37 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is pretty upsetting....

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Report Reveals Vietnam War Hoaxes, Faked Attacks

North Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own units during the Vietnam War, according to declassified information that also confirmed US officials faked an incident to escalate the war.The report was released by the National Security Agency, responsible for much of the United States’ codebreaking and eavesdropping work, in response to a “mandatory declassification” request, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said Monday.

On several occasions “the communists were able, by communicating on Allied radio nets, to call in Allied artillery or air strikes on American units,” it said.

But he said that probably the “most historically significant feature” of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.

That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson’s sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.

War in Afghanistan - lessons learned

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:08:10 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: By a local reporter, who is base in Afghanistan and home now on break. His take on what is going on, what he has learned, and where things are going. Interesting.

Clip Source: www.thestate.com

Lessons learned in six months

A reporter for The State lists the key things he found out in Afghanistan

Editor’s note: Chuck Crumbo, The State’s military reporter, is returning to South Carolina for a break after spending six months in Afghanistan with the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team. We asked him to come up with five things he had learned about the Afghan war while overseas. Here’s his list:

1. IT’S STILL UP FOR GRABS

2. IT’S GOING TO BE A LONG HAUL

3. CORRUPTION, POVERTY HELP TALIBAN

4. WAGING A WAR ON AFGHAN CIVILIANS

5. AFGHANS STILL BACK U.S., ALLIES

However, realizing foreign troops can’t stay forever, Afghans also think their country can and should take over the fight against the insurgents. More than 80 percent of Afghans express confidence in the ability of their army and police to take up the fight, another poll found.

Tags: afghanistan, war, soldiers

WWII Prisoners at Stalag Luft I

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:06:14 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Fascinating web site by a family whose father was a POW there. Lots of research, photos, poetry, art, and much more. Really well done!

Clip Source: www.merkki.com

World War II - Prisoners of War - Stalag Luft I

A collection of stories, photos, art and information on Stalag Luft I

uring World War II approximately 8,939 Allied Airmen ( 7,588 American and 1,351 Royal Air Force ) were imprisoned by the Germans at Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany.

All our lives we knew our father, Dick Williams, Jr. of Eufaula, Alabama, had been one of those imprisoned at Stalag Luft I, but that was all we knew, until we decided to apply for his Prisoner of War Medal in September 1999.

He never spoke of his combat experiences in the skies of Europe during World War II, and only rarely of his incarceration in a German prisoner of war camp.

Our Dad died suddenly 27 years ago, taking his memories with him. As adults our minds were full of questions we could no longer ask. We turned to the Internet in search of our answers.

We would like to share with you what we have learned, as part of our ongoing research, on Stalag Luft I and Prisoners of War in World War II Germany.

Vietnam Memories Preserved by Indian Artist

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:19:05 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Intriguing modernization of a traditional honoring form, used to memorialize American Indian veterans of the Vietnam War. Now in the Smithsonian. Unfortunately, the site does not include a photo of the art work.....a pity. Sounds fascinating.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

War and Remembrance

An Indian artist's traditional tribute honors Native American soldiers who served in Vietnam

In 2001, Her Many Horses, an artist trained both in traditional beadwork and in doll-making, began the creation of a commemorative tableau featuring miniature figures of Vietnam-era veterans and the tribal women who welcomed them home with ceremonies. Even today, these rituals are not much changed from the days when warriors returned from the Little Big Horn.

It was around this time, in the mid-1960s, that Indian soldiers began returning from tours of duty in Vietnam to be met by honoring ceremonies.

One man returned repeatedly to look at the dolls. He finally revealed that he was a Korean War veteran, allowing that to stand as sufficient reason for his intense contemplation of the work.

Her Many Horses, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, began attending tribal powwows as a boy.

Tags: vietnam, american indian, indian, art, artist, smithsonian, war, veterans, korean war

Camouflage - it works!

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:13:02 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Beautiful photos, interesting history of the study of camouflage in animals, and how this translated into the development of military camouflage.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Hiding in Plain Sight

A veteran photographer shows the extraordinary knack that some animals have for...disappearing

in a new book, Vanishing Act, he defies conventions to show what he calls "animals' incredible ability to vanish in plain sight."

Ever since people thousands of years ago noted the uncanny trickery of animal camouflage, nature watchers have taken pains to understand it. Some animals’ color matches their favored habitat:

vivid splotches or stripes help protect animals such as zebras and giraffes.

Military camouflage, first introduced in World War I, was inspired by research on animal camouflage.)

Mimicry is the shrewdest disguise.

Some camouflage works in concert with particular behaviors.

The modern study of camouflage began shortly after Charles Darwin proposed, in 1858, that new species arise through evolution by natural selection.

Tags: camouflage, nature, war, photography

Veteran's Benefits - after WWI

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:04:29 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: And we still can't get it right today. Some things never change. How sad that these folks who fight for their country - and other countries - can't get the benefits they deserve and were promised.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Marching on History

When a "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans converged on Washington in 1932 to demand a promised payment, MacArthur, Eisenhower and Patton were there to meet them

The demonstrators were part of a growing delegation of veterans and their families heading to Washington to collect payment of the “bonus,” promised eight years before, in 1924, to soldiers who had served in the Great War.

the Bonus Army would help shape several figures who would soon assume larger roles on the world stage—including Douglas A. MacArthur, George S. Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower and J. Edgar Hoover.

In 1932, nearly 32,000 businesses failed. Unemployment had soared to almost 25 percent, leaving roughly one family out of every four without a breadwinner.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Six years after the end of World War I, Congress responded to vets’ demands that the nation fulfill promises to compensate them by passing a bill granting “adjusted service compensation” to veterans of that war.

Tags: veterans, wwi, depression, great war, war