Monday, November 27, 2006

Buy a book, send a free book to a serviceman or woman for the holidays

Announcing the Victory Corps Book Program:
Buy One Book, Get Another Sent Free to a Soldier, Marine, Sailor, Coast Guardsman or Airman

This holiday season, www.war-books.com is offering to send a free book to a soldier, marine, sailor or airman because you bought a book on its Web Site. It’s a simple offer. We’ll send you the book you ordered and then send the same book to a serviceman or woman for free. All the buyer has to do is supply the name and address of the serviceman or woman and www.war-books.com will send the same book you ordered to him or her. You pay for your book and its shipping charge. The Web Site pays for shipping the free book to the service member of your choice. If you don’t know anyone in the active military, we’ll select someone in the armed forces for you and ship that book to him or her in your name.

This special offer is open to buyers from the United States. As a buyer, all you have to do is complete your purchase using PayPal by Midnight on December 21st.

The Victory Corps Book Program is named after the Victory Corps that the US Government ran for high school students during World War II. The Web Site www.war-books.com wants to reward those patriotic American men and women who are serving their country this holiday season.

So help us spread some cheer to those who are serving the rest of us in our attempt to spread justice and security in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and Europe. Order a Southfarm Press book from www.war-books.com today. Use PayPal to pay, list the name and address of the soldier you want the free book sent to on the comments section of the PayPal order form, and we’ll do our best to get your book and the soldier’s book to them by December 25th. Or tell us to pick a serviceman or woman for you. We’ll let you know to whom the book was sent.

Each free book will include a gift card with your name shown as the thoughtful person giving the book.

Associate Justice Hugo Black said long ago, “Here’s hope, strength and love to those who give hope, strength and love.” That’s our people who are serving in our Armed Forces right now. Here are some suggestions of gift books on www.war-books.com for our men and women in the Armed Forces:

Airmen and women might appreciate receiving Janey: A Little Plane in a Big War, Flying Low or The Grasshopper That Roared. Today, automatic drones fly over battlefields to observe the action and direct fire. These three books recount the experiences of real men in Piper Cubs over the battlefields of Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, and in the book The Grasshopper That Roared, New Guinea and the Philippines. For George Patton fans, Janey: A Little Plane in a Big War has accounts that military readers shouldn’t miss.

Ground pounders might like to read Dudley C. Gould’s Follow Me Up Fools Mountain or Good Night Love. The Military Book Club praised Fools Mountain: “Written by a rifle-platoon leader…[this is] a brand of combat memoir we’re rarely treated to. Relatively little is written with as much realism and verve.” Good Night Love is a perceptive look into front line combat that will automatically promote the cause of peace in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world .

Navy men or women might like to read about the sinking of the USS St. Lo (CVE-63) as recounted by a Piper Cub pilot while he was on the deck of the USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70). That’s in The Grasshopper That Roared. Or Frank Bogart’s account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th in Till War Do Us Part. Frank wasn’t on a battleship on Battleship Row. He was an ensign forced to take command of the USS Gamble, an old four-stack destroyer minelayer after his ship’s captain had a mental breakdown while enemy bombs and fighters swooped around his little ship as it attempted to shield the battleships.

Our three facts quiz books will test yours and a serviceman’s knowledge of World War II or Vietnam. Inexpensive books, Vietnam War Facts Quiz, World War II Facts Quiz Europe and World War II Facts Quiz The Pacific are all ball breakers.

Know someone in the military that is an Abraham Lincoln fan? Abe Lincoln and the Frontier Folk of New Salem recounts how Lincoln developed character as a young man that he drew upon during The Civil War.

For that woman in the service that you know, order In the Hands of My Enemy. She’ll read about one of Norway’s heroes during World War II, Sigrid Heide. Heide was a courier in the Norwegian underground captured by the Nazis that refused to break under intense torture and isolation. Her torture included a device that separated Heide’s kneecap from the bones around it. She was crippled for life. Publishers Weekly called this book “Searing.”

So order a book for yourself today on www.war-books.com. In doing so, you’ll be sending a holiday gift to one of our Armed Forces' heroes. Thank you.--Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Veterans: economic victims because of their service

The very best way to rebuild the links between the battlefront and the homefront requires reinstating the draft. Ever since the Vietnam War era, those with less opportunities have served as our Army enlisted personnel, with barely a college guy in sight. In my Signal Corps company in 1965-66, there was only one college graduate out of 150 enlisted men. Me. Since the repeal of the draft, the situation has gotten worse, with military and economic systems that literally force poorer young people to join the regular forces and the National Guard.

The Angrist-Krueger analysis of World War II veterans suggests that they earned five percent less over the decades after their service than those who did not serve. Joshua Angrist’s study of the Vietnam experience calculates that military service during the Vietnam War reduced average overall earnings for white males by 15 percent. Skills acquired in the military do not make up for lost civilian work experience.

Today, our poorer youth are still penalized for Army service while the sons and daughters of the political and commercial elite avoid risk from actions their fathers supported, such as in Iraq. I am a former Peace Corps Volunteer and Army Sergeant and have published military history and memoirs for 23 years, having read hundreds of manuscripts by veterans. Those experiences have taught me it is arrogance on our part to maintain a two tier system where the disadvantaged that do serve are economically punished for the rest of their lives. --Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

S.L.O.W.: Senator Lieberman on War


S.L.O.W.: Senator Lieberman on War
A new special, continuing feature from War Books, News and Opinions

As a resident of Connecticut, I've had out-of-staters ask me repeatedly about how Senator Joseph Lieberman could be re-elected our senator. After all, Connecticut residents are among the best educated in the nation. How could Connecticut voters back Lieberman with his abysmal support of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the Iraqi War and Occupation? How could he be re-elected by a majority of Connecticut voters?

Let's set that record straight. He was not re-elected by a majority of Connecticut voters. The majority voted against him by voting for the four other candidates for senate. It's a small, tiny majority, I admit. But it means that there are more of us out there in the Nutmeg State who were against his re-election than for it. Thank God!

That means he is not empowered by the majority of Connecticut voters to do anything he wants. Like he thinks he can do. On Meet the Press on Sunday, November 13, 2006, he said he has told the Secretary of State's office in Hartford that he is an "Independent Democrat." And that it was possible he would support Republican positions and maybe the Republican party. Hell, he's been doing that for years.

So when SLOW Joe takes positions on war, this blog is going to highlight them and compare them with his past positions. If you're into hypocrisy, this should be a favorite part of this blog for you.

I call him SLOW Joe because he doesn't seem to understand that his support for the Bush-Cheney War in Iraq is partially responsible for American military deaths and casualties in that war. As an advocate of our fighting men and women, I think his past and future positions on war need to be studied, exposed and compared. Stay tuned for some interesting stuff from SLOW Joe. --Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Saturday, November 11, 2006

That 70s Show and Veterans Day

That 70s Show, the Fox TV Network sitcom now in reruns, has a Veterans Day show. In that episode, Red is celebrating Veterans Day with his annual Veterans Day Picnic/Barbacue/Party. Suddenly, Red learns that Bob, his next door neighbor, Donna's father, is holding his own Veterans Day Party and Red sees red.

Why? Red is mad because Bob wasn't in the regular Army, he was just in the National Guard. Thus, in Red's eyes, Bob is not a real veteran.

Well, that was in the sixties and seventies. In those decades, the National Guard and Reserves were hiding places for men avoiding the draft and full time service. President George W. Bush is the poster boy for the guys who did that.

But in the 21st Century that has changed. National Guardsmen and Reservists have found themselves "drafted" in large numbers to fill in the gaps within our armed forces in Iraq. These men and women have had their lives interrupted for 12 to 18 months and have taken casualties. And there are reports that they are somehow not eligible for all the benefits their Regular Army brothers are entitled to even though they served in Iraq. That needs to be fixed.

I'm sure Red would agree with me that times have changed. Guardsmen and Reservists who have served overseas this decade are true veterans. This Veterans Day, let's not forget these reservists who have given so much to all of us with their sacrifices. I mourn the losses within their ranks this Veterans Day. We all should. --Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Friday, November 10, 2006

Veterans Day 2006: Band of Brothers

Whoever lives past today and comes
home safely will rouse himself every
year on this day, show his neighbor his
scars, and tell embellished stories of all
their great feats of battle.
These stories will teach his son and
from this day until the end of the world,
we shall be remembered.
We few, we happy few, we band of
brothers; for whoever has shed his blood
with me shall be my brother.
And those men afraid to go will think
themselves lesser men as they hear of
how we fought and died together.

—William Shakespeare

This passage by Shakespeare is the introduction to an early 2007 Southfarm Press book, Forgotten Army: The Abandonment of American Revolutionary War Soldiers by Dudley C. Gould (ISBN: 978-0-913337-64-6). Events reported in the book are the same as what was experienced by veterans of the Vietnam War. Nothing seems to change. Look for the book on www.war-books.com early next year.

Honor our veterans today and tomorrow. Hang your flag. Go to a Veterans' Cemetery. Work to bring our troops home from Iraq. Stay away from veterans' Day sales.--Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Message to Donald Rumsfeld from Julius Caesar

This message from Julius Caesar applies to Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned today as our Secretary of Defense, and to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and to our newly re-elected Senator from Connecticut, Joseph Lieberman:

"The evil men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones..." --Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman, 100-44 BC.

As a publisher of military history and memoirs, I abhor the abuse of our servicemen and women by the Bush-Cheney administration. The use of our armed forces to protect the investments of Bush-Cheney and their cronies is criminal. Also criminal is the maintenance of military and economic systems that literally force young men and women of limited means to join the regular armed forces and National Guard. These young people then find themselves in Iraq or Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the sons and daughters of the political and commercial elite avoid any risk from military actions that their fathers created and support.

We need justice for the almost 3,000 Americans we have lost in Iraq. As Ralph Nader has said: "Seeking justice supersedes everything. Without justice, we have nothing in this world. We can't have freedom without justice. That's what freedom is supposed to be."--Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Message to Senator John Kerry from our troops in Iraq



Who says our troops in Iraq don't have a sense of humor?

I received this photo in an email and had to share it. I don't know where it originally came from and if it is copyright protected and someone complains, I'll delete it.

But meanwhile enjoy it. The men and women in our armed forces are the greatest in the world. This photo proves it.--Walter Haan, www.war-books.com