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In-Depth Interview: New Novel ‘Hooper’s War’, Explores Moral Injury
Journalist Peter B. Collins wrote of his latest podcast:
State Department veteran Peter Van Buren talks about his powerful new antiwar novel, Hooper’s War exploring the personal cost of combat, moral injury. Since he published his first book about his experiences in Iraq, We Meant Well, Van Buren has been a frequent contributor to this podcast.Today, we discuss his new novel, set in WWII Japan, which looks at the impact of war on combatants and others and introduces the concept of moral injury. Unlike PTSD, which is the result of a fear-conditioned response, moral injury is a feeling of existential disorientation that manifests as intense guilt, grief and regret, often leading to self-medication and suicidal thoughts.
The lead characters in Hooper’s War are an American and a Japanese soldier, and the reverse-chronology narrative (Hooper looking back during his final years) of the fictional firebombing of Kyoto.
As we discuss, Van Buren deftly uses the form of fiction to depict his own residual pain resulting from a one-year tour of Iraq where he saw victims who had been “roasted” by modern warfare driven by incoherent missions and pointless conflict. One of Hooper’s superiors tells him “This shit doesn’t end when the war does, it only ends when we do.”
While we rarely cover novels on this podcast, Van Buren’s new book is a compelling look at the human cost of armed conflict, and raises many important issues about the morality of war. PBC strongly recommends this book.
Listen to the whole interview here.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview on Politics and Reality Radio
I joined host Joshua Holland on Politics and Reality Radio to talk about Islamic State, the refugee crisis in Syria and concerns about the gap between on-the-ground reality in Iraq and what might be being reported up the chain by military intelligence analysts intent on cooking the books to suggest we are winning.My portion of the show starts at 7:05 in.
Also featured are Ed Kilgore from The Washington Monthly on U.S. politics and the 2016 campaign, and The New Republic‘s Rebecca Leber talking about the horrific shootings broadcast live out of Virginia this week.
Check out the interview online.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
My Interview on Afghan-Taliban Talks: ‘Terrorists or not, labels less important than stopping war’
I had a chance to sit down with RT.com to talk about the peace talks between Afghan officials and the Taliban that are expected to start again after Ramadan ends. The negotiations are taking place after more than a decade of war. Here’s what we said.
RT: Why is the Afghan government negotiating with Taliban terrorists in the first place?
PVB:As a former diplomat, I think it’s critical people do talk. Look, this war has gone on for fourteen years between the US, the Taliban, the Pakistanis, the Afghans – the whole gang. There has got to be a way to bring it to a conclusion, and since the US has failed militarily to bring it to a conclusion, really the only answer now is some form of negotiation. Terrorist or not, the labels are less important than the idea of stopping this war.
RT: The talks in Pakistan were said to have been very constructive, with negotiators reportedly even hugging each other afterwards. Can this diplomacy really bring peace to Afghanistan?
PVB: I think the word “peace” is a little ambitious at this point of time. I prefer the word “resolution”. We are going to have a hard time saying this is a war that was won, or a war that settled something. But I think what we need now is to speak of resolution, a way for the US to disengage, a way for the Afghan government and the Afghans in the Taliban to talk to one another and try to work something out that will benefit the Afghan people.
RT: US-led occupation forces ran the show in Afghanistan for 13 years. Were they even trying to make peace with the Taliban?
PVB: It’s a good question and one I think people like you and people like me have been asking for all these years. We’re going to have to take a deep breath and say that it’s good that the negotiations have started, even though history would judge poorly the fact that it took all these years and all these deaths to get us to this point.
RT: What about a military solution here? Has the US finally understood it’s not going to work?
PVB: It took Washington a good part of those years to realize there is no military solution, but I’m sad to say it took Washington even more time to understand that it was going to have to negotiate with the people who are on the battlefield. I think that mindset of having to negotiate with “the enemy” was really a harder victory to achieve in Washington than the idea that the military solution wasn’t going to work.
RT: Could talks with the militants have started sooner?
PVB: Absolutely. They could have started much sooner, they could have started back in 2001. The US initial push into Afghanistan was actually very successful. The Taliban was driven out of all the major cities, they were driven up into the mountains, into the caves, into hiding and at that point of time I think there was in fact a negotiated political solution that might have avoided all the years of war. There were points no doubt along the way when some type of negotiations may have been possible. That’s all water under the bridge; it’s blood on everyone’s hands but again we are going to take a deep breath and say “Thank goodness, we finally got to the point where we are sitting down at a table rather than facing off across the battlefield.”
RT: There’s also the threat posed by Islamic State in the region. There are reports that the group’s leader for Afghanistan and Pakistan has been killed in a US drone strike. The terrorist organization has said it wants to expand in the area. Who’s there to stop them?
PVB: Islamic State has something to do with it, but perhaps in a different way. Certainly no one wants to see IS entering the conflict in Afghanistan. More people with more guns are not going to make anything better. But I suspect part of the motivation is to allow the US to focus more on IS in Iraq, in Syria and other places. The Afghan war is over; everyone knows that, it’s a matter of figuring out the right way to bring America’s role to some form of resolution.
RT: Could IS be possibly welcomed in Afghanistan?
PVB: IS has the potential to establish a foothold there. Keep in mind Afghanistan shares a huge border with Pakistan, so infiltration is not going to be physically a very difficult thing, and the Taliban have often welcomed outside help in their struggle. But at the end of the day I don’t think the Taliban have much interest in sharing power with IS, I don’t think the Taliban would have much tolerance for IS setting up any kind of permanent shelter there and I don’t think the Taliban at this point see themselves wanting to give away their successes against the US by giving America yet another reason to kick the war in Afghanistan up a notch. I suspect IS’s welcome in Afghanistan would be relatively short.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Rearming Iraq: The New Arms Race
The United States remains the world’s largest exporter of weapons.
The Middle East and North Africa are among America’s most lucrative arms markets, and U.S. defense companies and contractors have opened local offices as the demand shows no sign of abating.I sat down with VICE News to discuss the (lack of) controls on U.S. arms exports. The focus is on how arms sales were built into our war efforts in Iraq, and how the “controls” on selling weapons to regimes that violate human rights are bypassed via a compliant State Department.
One highlight of this documentary is VICE News traveling to the International Defense Exhibition and Conference in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi, to examine the competition between arms manufacturers vying for a greater portion of the lucrative market.
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Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Talking Arms Proliferation on Chinese Television
So how’s that war on terror going? Well, it may not be very successful in actually stopping any terrorism, but it sure as hell has been profitable for America’s arms manufacturers. I was on Chinese CCTV recently to discuss the issue.
Part I
Part II
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On The BBC Defending Not Torturing People
I joined fellow whistleblower and former chief Guantanamo prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis on the BBC’s World TV recently to speak out against torture.
Because most “journalism” these days defines objectivity as having people from bizarrely opposite sides of an issue yell at each other until time is up, I found myself “rebutting” a handful of nut jobs whose argument was basically that torture is good, or maybe useful, or vengeful, or whatever, as long as it hurts dirty brown Muslims because, 9/11. Witches deserved it. Also, torture works.
Torture Worked at SalemTorture does indeed work, if your goal is simply to punish, humiliate or extract false confessions. One example of torture’s very successful use in American history was with the Salem witch trials. Innocent women in 17th century America were brutalized until they admitted to being witches. In one ingenious twist of logic worthy of their post-9/11 successors, the torturers devised a 100 percent effective strategy: hold a suspected witch under water until she either drowns (oops, not a witch, exonerated) or magically floats (confirming she is a witch) and then execute her. One way or another, you’re always correct!
The logic holds for our modern day torturers. We learned than some 26 men held by the United States and tortured, some for years, truly had no connection to terrorism. Everytime they were waterboarded, threatened with death or beaten, they told the truth: they were not terrorists. However, their denials of culpability were taken merely as signs that more torture was needed to get them to confess.
9/11 Left Us with No ChoiceOne of the other points the troglodytes supporting torture, from the other guests on the BBC show to the Director of the CIA and the President, have brought up is the urgency and seriousness of the post-9/11 environment. They insist torture must be viewed in that light, not from the soft comfort of 2014. America had been attacked, and only through any and all means necessary could we protect her.
Many other times America faced dire circumstances, most far more dangerous to the nation, when government-sponsored torture on a massive scale somehow wasn’t needed to prevail. The American Civil War, and WWII, especially in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, are two examples that come to mind. What made a handful of jihadis more dangerous?
Ticking Time Bomb ScenarioOK, OK, the ticking time bomb scenario. This one pops up as regular as bowel movements. Isn’t torture justified under a situation where a captured terrorist knows information that would stop a bus full of patriotic orphans from being blown up?
Of course, no such scenario has ever existed, and is unlikely ever to exist. For a real 24 TV-like ticking time bomb scenario to exist, here’s what would need to fall into place: the U.S. would have to capture a terrorist in a timely fashion who knew the full, precise details (Monday morning, corner of 5th and Main, Columbus, Ohio, bad guy in white Prius), the U.S. would need to know that the terrorist indeed possessed this information, the U.S. would have to know only torture would elicit the information, the terrorist would need to “break” and give up the full, true information in a timely manner and the information would need to be transmitted to the appropriate law enforcement authorities wherever they were and they would need to act conclusively under whatever time pressures existed, and be successful in their intervention.
Absent even one of those elements, there is no ticking time bomb scenario. It is a false argument for torture, as they all are.
17th Century MoralityBut at the end of the day, what troubled me most was not the odd idea that the venerable BBC had stooped to scouring the world to find advocates of torture and given them an audience larger than those they normally addressed from under the rocks they live hidden beneath, or that journalism stoops so low now.
The saddest thing of all is that in what is supposed to be the enlightened 21st century, with so many cries of “never again” echoing in our historical background, we are still forced to defend the notion that a country like the United States should not torture people. We have reverted to a 17th century morality.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
TV Interview on PBS Kentucky: Iraq, and Ghosts of Tom Joad
As part of the 2014 Louisville Idea Festival, I spoke with Bill Goodman of KET, Kentucky Educational Television, the PBS station in Louisville about both of my books, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On the Air with Alan Colmes
On the Alan Colmes radio show we talked about some of the mistakes the U.S. has made in Iraq and Syria, and how the future of the region can only end in chaos.
We also discussed where ISIS came from, why the State Department went after me after writing We Meant Well, and what it really means to “rebuild” Iraq.
Listen to the full audio here.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On Dutch TV Taking Iraq, Syria and ISIS
Here I am on the Dutch television program “Nieuwsuur,” with former Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra, discussing the futility of air strikes to resolve the Iraq/Syria/ISIS mess.
After a setup in Dutch by the anchor, and an Obama speech clip, the interview (about three minutes in) is in English.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview with KGNU: Ghosts of Tom Joad
I recently spoke with KGNU‘s Claudia Cragg about my personal work experience at a store I call “Bullseye,” in the minimum wage Big Box economy and how this led to Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent.
Ghosts looks up close at the drastic effects of social and economic changes in America between WWII and the decline of the blue collar middle class in the 1980’s right up to today.
Have a listen to the full interview.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Radio Interview: The Burt Cohen Show
Here’s my interview about the First Amendment and America’s descent into a state I call Post-Constitutional America with host Burt Cohen, on WOOL, 91.5 FM in Vermont, and WNHN 94.7 FM in New Hampshire.
The full interview online.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On the Alex Jones Show: Ghosts of Tom Joad, Iraq and More
I again join the Alex Jones Show, with guest host Dave Knight, to discuss the devolving situation in Iraq, and my new book Ghosts of Tom Joad. My portion of the show begins about two hours and eight minutes in, so feel free to fast forward to the good stuff below, or jump right to it with this link.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview: I Go to Hell Again
“Our rights are subject to the government’s desire to allow us to exercise them.”
This is Hell! is a fascinating talk radio program on Chicago’s WNUR 89.3 FM, and podcast online. I spoke with them recently. Here’s what they had to say about the conversation:From real life battlefields in real life Iraq to metaphorical battlefields in fictionalized Ohio, Peter Van Buren‘s books detail lives caught up in failing systems, both real (We Meant Well) and imaginary (his first novel: Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent.)
In Peter’s third appearance on This is Hell!, he discusses how his years in Iraq inform his ideas about the current violence wrecking parts of the nation, how government surveillance in the U.S. has radically changed the character of American democracy, and the real world ghosts haunting the protagonist of his new book.
Have a listen to the full interview.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview with Jordana Green, CBS Radio
I recently sat down with Jordana Green of CBS radio’s WCCO 830AM, Minnesota, to talk about working in the minimum wage economy, whistleblowing and my book, Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent.
Here’s the whole show. My portion begins at 20:56 in.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
At CNN
Selfie at CNN studios today in NYC.
Taped a segment on Iraq, not sure if/when it will air. I explained U.S. military intervention in Iraq, as opposed to “doing nothing,” would be like choosing between throwing gas into a fire versus “doing nothing.”
That said, consensus among the anchors and other guests was that “we have to do something.” OK, sure, but how’d that work out for ya’ last time?
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On the Alex Jones Show
I join radio host Alex Jones to discuss the situation in the Ukraine, and my new book Ghosts of Tom Joad. The part about the broader societal and economic issues underlying Ghosts begins at 13:30.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Radio Interview with Bob Fitrakis, 102.1 FM in Columbus, Ohio
An interview with radio host Bob Fitrakis at 102.1 FM in Columbus, Ohio.
We discuss Ghosts of Tom Joad, as well as the implications of a society where 99 percent of the people are beholden to one percent for their lives. You can sell your labor, but do you also have to sell your soul?
Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman co-wrote Did George W. Bush Steal America’s 2004 Election?, Essential Documents, and How the GOP Stole America’s 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008. He co-wrote What Happened in Ohio? A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election with Steven Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman. So you know we had a lot to talk about.
The full interview is online here.
My portion starts about 10:50 in.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Jack Rice Interview: Torture Laid Bare, Nuremberg and Guantanamo
A powerful interview with radio host Jack Rice of KTNF, 950AM. We discuss my article Torture Laid Bare at Nuremberg, and Maybe Guantanamo. What does it say to the world when we return to the days of torture, especially with the help of doctors?
The full interview is online here.
The interview itself starts about 4:45 in, after a detailed introduction.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Radio Interviews: Rick Smith, Peter B. Collins and Ian Masters
Enjoyed a couple of good radio interviews recently about my book, Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent. Here they are (click on the BOLD headlines to hear the interview!) This is just like me in person, only with a volume control.
My portion starts at 14:30.
We talk how “jobs created” is a poor statistical way to gauge how things are going, as many/most of those jobs are minimum wage and do not pay enough for a person to actually live on his/her wages. The worker is left with a devil’s choice between hunger and food stamps. But the numbers look good on da’ TV.
It is actually worse. The U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in April 2014. Good news! But 377,000 people filed for initial unemployment benefits in the week ended January 21, up 21,000 from 356,000 claims the week before. Rick Smith and I sort it out.
My portion starts about one minute in.
Peter B. and I cover the new book in detail, as well as the factual background of economics behind the (semi-) fictional story of Ghosts.
For example, in 2012, 46.2 million people in the United States lived in poverty. The nation’s official poverty rate is 15.0%. By the way, according to the U.S. government, if you as a single person earn more than $11,344 you are officially not impoverished. The bar seems pretty low– the average one-bedroom apartment rent in Tulsa, Oklahoma is about $7500 a year, leaving you as a non-poverty person with a sweet, sweet $3800 to eat, pay utilities, car, clothes, etc. Most places in America have higher costs of living than Tulsa.
The interview is primarily on the failures of U.S. diplomacy over the Ukraine.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Live on the Jon Wiener Show, April 30 at 3pm, KPFK 90.7
For anyone in Los Angeles and elsewhere, I’ll be joining host Jon Wiener today, April 30, at 3pm PST on KPFK 90.7 to talk about Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent, the minimum wage and economic inequality in the U.S.
The U.S. is now an astonishingly unequal society, with wealth piling up at the top so fast that it will be impossible to reverse.
If you’re familiar with French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-selling 700-page book on the long-term trends in inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century
you know about the intellectual and econometric causes and effects of what is happening to our society. Tune in today and learn about what that same society now looks like from the ground level.If you’re not in LA this afternoon, you can also listen in via the web:
Archived. My portion begins at 26:30.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview: The Brian Oxman Show and Tom Joad
I enjoyed once again joining Talk Radio Network’s Brian Oxman for an interview about my current book Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent. We traced the roots of the 99 percent, and talked about who Tom Joad is, and how his story is still relevant today in understanding our economy. Have a listen:
Part One
Oxman Van Buren Interview Part 1
Part Two
Oxman Van Buren Interview Part 2
Still not sure who Tom Joad? Watch this video and hear Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello, Elvis Costello, and Mumford and Sons answer:
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview: The Daily Report, KTNF AM950 in Minnesota
While some media outlets still roll their hipstar eyes when someone wants to talk about the dilution of the Middle Class, deindustrialization and the working poor, the Midwest gets it. Hell, they live it.
So it was a pleasure to talk Ghosts of Tom Joad with Aaron Klemz of The Daily Report, KTNF AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota.
Here’s some audio from that interview. Scroll down for the sound from “The Daily Report Hour 2 – April 25, 2014” and hit play.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
My Interview with Thom Hartmann
The show is called “Conversations with Great Minds,” so I’ve already thought-experimented with all the obvious jokes, so save them for your next party small talk, ‘K?
Jokes aside, here’s a serious interview on the reconstruction failures in Iraq, still relevant as we repeat the same mistakes in Afghanistan and prepare to repeat them in Syria? Yemen? and wherever. Have a listen.
Part One
Part Two
More on the series, Conversations with Great Minds. The interview with Eyal Press, author of Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times
is particularly good.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview: Talking Back to Power
I joined Jess Radack of the Government Accountability Project (GAP) on the Alyona Show to talk about the government’s war on whistleblowers, how free speech may be an export item for the US, but is not wanted at home when it criticizes our own government.
(If the video is not showing above, please follow this link to view it)
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On RT.com: War on Whistleblowers
The House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises passed a bill that severely weakens protection for corporate whistleblowers. The bill requires the whistleblower to confront the company in question first before going to a regulatory agency. Then the agency would notify the entity being accused of wrong-doing before any enforcement action is taken. Also it would legalize retaliation by the company against the whistle blowing employee. I joined RT.com to take a closer look at the rights of whistleblowers and how they’ve changed through the years.
(Follow this link if the video is not embedded above).
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
What Next in Iraq? Listen in on RT.com
I discuss the current political moves in Iraq, and look ahead at the next likely steps, on RT.com.
See the full story, now at RT.com.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview with WGN Radio, Chicago
I had a great interview with host Mike McConnell of WGN Radio in Chicago. You can listen to the whole thing online now, at their site.
Mike starts off the hour by chatting with Peter Van Buren, Author of “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People,” which offers an infuriating look at the Iraq War.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
TV Interview: Democracy Now!
Democracy Now was kind enough to interview me this morning, about changes in Iraq and the State Department’s future there.
Please have a look at the full ten minute segment online now, or on a later rebroadcast on a local station near you.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Interview with KQV in Pittsburgh
On the radio:Although American troops will be withdrawing from Iraq by the end of the year, that doesn’t mean the State Department is going to stop spending money there anytime soon. That’s according to Peter van Buren, a State Department insider who has a new book out about his experiences in Iraq, “We Meant Well.” Van Buren talked about what’s next for Iraq during a LiveLine interview with KQV’s PJ Maloney.
Listen to the whole thing online!
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
On Russia Today Television
Video from my recent interview with Russia Today:
If the video is not showing above, follow this link to view it.Don’t miss the comments– one guy writes “100 dollars this guy will be dead with in 1 year.”
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Buy Peter’s Books on Amazon!
