ANZAC Day & Courtenay's Solomon's Song

Today is ANZAC day and here's the latest reporting from TVNZ, "Thousands attend 'emotional' Anzac Day services:"

Around 10,000 people braved the weather to attend the country's biggest service at Auckland's War Memorial Museum. It has been 98 years since Anzac forces landed on the shores of Gallipoli. "I spent some time in the New Zealand Army deploying to Afghanistan, it's a big day for me, probably the most important day of the year," said Damian Walker.

For a novel about Australia and New Zealand's experiences in WWI (and at Gallipoli), try Bryce Courtenay's Solomon's Song:

Solomons are pitted against Solomons as the families are locked in a bitter struggle that crosses battlefields and continents to reach a powerful conclusion.

POWs & Clavell's King Rat

From April 11th's BBC article, "Medal of Honor for US Army chaplain Father Kapaun:"

An Army chaplain who saved the lives of fellow US soldiers before perishing in a North Korean prison camp has been awarded a posthumous US Medal of Honor...

In the official Medal of Honor citation, Kapaun is hailed for staying behind at the battle of Unsan to tend to wounded comrades when Chinese soldiers overran the American position...

After their capture, Kapaun and wounded soldiers able to walk were marched to a prison camp near Pyoktong, just south of the Yalu River in North Korea. During the march and his time at the camp, Kapaun helped carry wounded men, bathed them and washed their clothes, stole food for his fellow prisoners and held secret prayer services in defiance of the Communist camp officials.

He contracted dysentery and pneumonia, and after months in near-freezing and starving conditions, Kapaun died in late May 1951 at the age of 35.

For a novel about POWs, try King Rat by James Clavell (who himself was a prisoner of war in WWII):

The time is World War II. The place is a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory. Here, within the seething mass of humanity, one man, an American corporal, seeks dominance over both captives and captors alike. His weapons are human courage, unblinking understanding of human weaknesses, and total willingness to exploit every opportunity to enlarge his power and corrupt or destroy anyone who stands in his path.

Nuclear Submarines & Clancy's The Hunt for Red October

From yesterday's Telegraph editorial by PM David Cameron, "We need a nuclear deterrent more than ever:"

This week marks the completion of the 100th patrol by the Royal Navy’s Vanguard-class submarines, which carry our Trident nuclear missiles. Every hour of every day, one of these submarines is patrolling the oceans – silent and invisible, armed and alert, our ultimate insurance against nuclear attack... I know there are some people who disagree with our nuclear deterrent and don’t want us to renew it. There are those who say that we don’t need it any more, because the Cold War has ended... But as Prime Minister, with ultimate responsibility for the nation’s security, I profoundly disagree with them. Let me explain why. First, we need our nuclear deterrent as much today as we did when a previous British Government embarked on it over six decades ago. Of course, the world has changed dramatically. The Soviet Union no longer exists. But the nuclear threat has not gone away. In terms of uncertainty and potential risk it has, if anything, increased.

For a novel about nuclear submarines, try Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October:

Here is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so gripping in its action and so convincing in its accuracy that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a top secret Russian missile sub. Lauded by the Washington Post as "breathlessly exciting." The Hunt for Red October remains a masterpiece of military fiction by one of the world's most popular authors, a man whose shockingly realistic scenarios continue to hold us in thrall.Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on...

Rebel Takeover in CAR & Park's A Long Walk to Water

I've previously posted about the civil war in Congo.  Now we move to the civil war in the Central African Republic.

From today's BBC article "Central African Republic: Rebels 'take palace as Bozize flees:'"

Rebels in the Central African Republic say they have seized the presidential palace after President Francois Bozize reportedly fled the capital... The rebels joined a power-sharing government in January after talks brokered by regional leaders to end a rebellion they launched last year. But the deal quickly collapsed, with the rebels saying their demands, including the release of political prisoners, had not been met. BBC Africa editor Richard Hamilton says government soldiers have been unable to fend off the rebels because Mr Bozize fears being overthrown in a coup and is therefore wary of having a strong army. He came to power himself in a military coup in 2003.

I couldn't find any "perfect match" novels. I could hardly find any novels set in the Central African Republic. Suggestions welcome!

So instead I recommend a book set in Sudan which touches on several themes relevant to CAR, including rebels and refugees. That book is Linda Sue Park's young adult novel A Long Walk to Water:

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.

Obama's Trip to Jerusalem, Israel, & Grossman's To the End of the Land

From yesterday's New York Times article "Arriving in Israel, Obama Seeks to Offer Reassurance:"

It took four years and a second term, but President Obama traveled to Israel on Wednesday for a richly symbolic state visit, bearing a message of solidarity to a wary Israeli public and a promise to defend Israel from threats near and far. “Shalom,” Mr. Obama said after embracing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, who waited for him on a red carpet under the shadow of Air Force One at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport. “I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our nations,” he said. At a news conference later, Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu labored to project a unified front on issues that have often divided them, from how best to confront Iran’s nuclear program to how doggedly to pursue an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

For a novel about 21st century Israel, try To the End of the Land by David Grossman:

Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is on the verge of celebrating her son Ofer’s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. In a fit of preemptive grief and magical thinking, she sets out for a hike in the Galilee, leaving no forwarding information for the “notifiers” who might darken her door with the worst possible news. Recently estranged from her husband, Ilan, she drags along an unlikely companion: their former best friend and her former lover Avram, once a brilliant artistic spirit. Avram served in the army alongside Ilan when they were young, but their lives were forever changed one weekend when the two jokingly had Ora draw lots to see which of them would get the few days’ leave being offered by their commander—a chance act that sent Avram into Egpyt and the Yom Kippur War, where he was brutally tortured as POW. In the aftermath, a virtual hermit, he refused to keep in touch with the family and has never met the boy. Now, as Ora and Avram sleep out in the hills, ford rivers, and cross valleys, avoiding all news from the front, she gives him the gift of Ofer, word by word; she supplies the whole story of her motherhood, a retelling that keeps Ofer very much alive for Ora and for the reader, and opens Avram to human bonds undreamed of in his broken world. Their walk has a “war and peace” rhythm, as their conversation places the most hideous trials of war next to the joys and anguish of raising children. Never have we seen so clearly the reality and surreality of daily life in Israel, the currents of ambivalence about war within one household, and the burdens that fall on each generation anew.

It seems that Obama has also read the book.

UPDATE:  here's a review of To the End of the Land over at the Of Books and Reading blog.

Sexual Assault in the Military & Benedict's Sand Queen

From today's NY Daily News article "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ripped into top Pentagon lawyers during Senate subcommittee hearing, charging military has been too slow to stem tide of sex crimes in ranks:"

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was not shy in chairing her first subcommittee hearing as she laced into Pentagon officials Wednesday for failing to curb a rash of sexual assaults in the armed services. New York’s junior senator, elected to her first full term in November, took the reins of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Personnel Subcommittee this year and has made it a priority to go after the problem of rampant rapes, sexual assaults and sexual harassment in the military. Almost 2,500 cases of sexual violence were reported in 2011, but the Defense Department estimated that if all victims had actually come forward, that number would have been close to 19,000. In emotional and sometimes harrowing testimony Wednesday, three victims who were raped while they were enlisted said the system is broken and that victims are discouraged from reporting a crime or ostracized if they do so. It was the first Senate hearing on the topic in nearly a decade.

For a novel that delves into sexual assault in the military, try Sand Queen by Helen Benedict:

Nineteen-year-old Kate Brady joined the army to bring honor to her family and democracy to the Middle East. Instead, she finds herself in a forgotten corner of the Iraq desert in 2003, guarding a makeshift American prison. There, Kate meets Naema Jassim, an Iraqi medical student whose father and little brother have been detained in the camp. Kate and Naema promise to help each other, but the war soon strains their intentions. Like any soldier, Kate must face the daily threats of combat duty, but as a woman, she is in equal danger from the predatory men in her unit.

UPDATE:  you can find a longer review of Benedict's book over at the Literary Treats blog.

Drones & Suarez's Kill Decision

Drones have frequently been in the news over the last year, and their increasing use by the U.S. military is a contentious issue in American politics.  Last week, Senator Paul's filibuster brought the drone issue to a head.  Here are the highlights from the relevant BBC article, "Senator Rand Paul's drone filibuster delays CIA nomination:"

A Republican US senator has delayed the nomination of a new CIA chief over questions about the possible use of drones against Americans. Senator Rand Paul spoke without a pause for nearly 13 hours, in a tactic known as a filibuster, before yielding the floor... Sen Paul - a critic of the use of drones - demanded a pledge from either President Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder that drones would not be used in the US to kill terror suspects who are US citizens... The Kentucky senator said he was "alarmed" by how difficult it had been to get President Barack Obama's administration to clearly define what qualifies as a legitimate target of a drone strike. "No president has the right to say he is judge, jury and executioner,'' Sen Paul said, adding he would end the filibuster if the White House clarified no such attack would happen on US soil.

For a novel on drones, try Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez:

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist—they’re widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, bestselling author Daniel Suarez takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results. Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned—and thanks to her research, automated—drone army. Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into the faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention. Together, McKinney and Odin must slow this advance long enough for the world to recognize its destructive power, because for thousands of years the “kill decision” during battle has remained in the hands of humans—and off-loading that responsibility to machines will bring unintended, possibly irreversible, consequences.

UPDATE:  there are some longer reviews of Kill Decision over at the Daqri and ZenPundit blogs.

Spielberg's Napoleon Miniseries & Scarrow's Young Bloods

From today's BBC story "Spielberg to develop Kubrick's Napoleon for TV:"

Steven Spielberg is to give life to a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick about Napoleon, which was scrapped by the late film maker in the 1970s. He told French TV network Canal+ he would make a TV miniseries - not a film - about the life of the French Emperor... Regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Kubrick directed groundbreaking films including 2001: A Space Odyssey...  According to the Hollywood Reporter, he was "devoted" to the research involved in the biopic about Napoleon, spending years exploring the French emperor's life in detail.

If you want a rollicking story about Napoleon's life, you don't have to wait for the Spielberg miniseries. Try Simon Scarrow's Young Bloods:

Europe in the late eighteenth century was a tumultuous place, with war and rebellions breaking out on many fronts. Young Arthur Wesley (later Wellington) and Napoleon Bonaparte grow up worlds apart yet immersed from youth in a culture where a military career is a natural choice for men of ambition. While Wellington is blooded in Ireland and Flanders, Napoleon is caught up in the dramas of the French Revolution and war with Prussia, Britain and Holland. None of this is enough to distract Wellington from his pursuit of Kitty Pakenham or Napoleon from his future bride, Josephine, for these men throw themselves into all aspects of life as enthusiastically as they rush to battle.

The courting scenes between Wellington and Kitty are cringe-worthy, but the rest of the novel is good.

10th Anniversary of the Iraq War & Powers' The Yellow Birds

This month marks the ten-year anniversary of the War in Iraq. Here is UPI on the anniversary:

March 20 marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. U.S. forces in December 2011 left under the terms of a bilateral status of forces agreement. Iraq since the invasion has had a series of successful democratic elections, though internal divisions and sectarian violence have undermined the country's progress.

And here is a excerpt from the Atlantic article "As We Near the 10th Anniversary of the Iraq War:"

This month marks ten years since the U.S. launched its invasion of Iraq. In my view this was the biggest strategic error by the United States since at least the end of World War II and perhaps over a much longer period. Vietnam was costlier and more damaging, but also more understandable. As many people have chronicled, the decision to fight in Vietnam was a years-long accretion of step-by-step choices, each of which could be rationalized at the time. Invading Iraq was an unforced, unnecessary decision to risk everything on a "war of choice" whose costs we are still paying.

For a novel about US experiences in the war, you might want to try Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds, which has been described as "Iraq's All Quiet on the Western Front" and was acclaimed as one of the best novels of 2012:

"The war tried to kill us in the spring," begins this breathtaking account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.

Experience of Returning Soldiers & Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

From today's BBC article "Obama to announce 34,000 troops out of Afghanistan:"

President Barack Obama will announce in his State of the Union speech 34,000 US troops will leave Afghanistan by early 2014, a White House official has said. The move would effectively halve the current US troop levels in the country from about 66,000.

What's a good novel about how soldiers experience their return to civilian life? I'm currently reading Ben Fountain's novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. It's about U.S. soldiers back home from Iraq on a mid-deployment victory tour (not about them re-integrating with society after their deployment is over):

A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at "the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal"--three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew--has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show alongside the superstar pop group Destiny's Child. Among the Bravos is the Silver Star-winning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and Support Our Troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboys' hard-nosed businessman/owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious born-again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war.

For those of you who prefer classics, there's always Hemingway's short story "Soldier's Home."