Ezra's Essays

Category: War

  • BUSH AND MUSSOLINI | TWO CONSUMMATE LOSERS

    As we have been told by scholars, history has a way of repeating itself. Today, we find the Bush administration beating the drums for war against Iraq. As always happens, Iraqi leaders are being demonized. Of course, demonizing Saddam Hussein is an easy thing to do. But beyond Hussein, this country and Britain have stooped…

  • CREDENTIALS

    It must be supposed that lots of people want to establish their credentials, perhaps to impress other people or to solicit business for their enterprises. In the top drawer of my desk, there is a collection of calling cards with all sorts of abbreviations representing the higher credentials of the owners. There are M.D.’s by…

  • BITS AND PIECES – PART I

    If a writer is going to write essays, which I try to do sometimes, ideas are needed. In the beginning, these ideas usually take the form of short notes for my files. Later I may turn some of these short notes into essays. On the other hand, many of these notes will not ever become…

  • WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS IN IRAQ

    OR: THERE AIN’T NO JUSTICE  IN MILITARY JUSTICE Early in December, 2003, news reports and network television broadcasts quoted Lt. Colonel Nathan Sassaman of the United States Army as delivering these pungent remarks after the American Army had shot up some Iraqi villages. Col. Sassaman said, “With a heavy dose of fear and violence and…

  • A THOUGHT ABOUT WAR AND A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY ABOUT HATRED

    From time to time, my thoughts turn to the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. As a World War II soldier, may you be assured that war is not a pleasant pastime. It is repugnant. Combat soldiers see bodies blown apart and maimed. The soldier you were pals with yesterday, may be a maimed cripple…

  • ARMY DAYS – AFRICA AND OTHER PLACES

    I suppose it would be well to write this essay in a bit of a hurry. The reason has to do with the grim reaper mowing down people who served in the military services in World War II. Two years ago, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs reported that World War II veterans were…

  • FLAGS, FLAGS – EVERYWHERE FLAGS

    In November, 1945 Winter was making its frigid appearance felt in the Mississippi Valley in the general vicinity of St. Louis. Daytime temperatures had trouble in breaking the freezing point. Night time temperatures were somewhat colder. Cold in this region of the Mississippi Valley is made somewhat worse by the presence of high humidity. So…

  • DUTY | THE VETERAN’S HISTORY PROJECT

    In the spring and summer of 2001, the former AT&T Long Lines Headquarters building at 32 Sixth Avenue in New York City was sold to the Rudin Corporation. I had a vested interest in the lobby of that building because that is where a plaque commemorating the memory of those serving in World War II…

  • FAREWELL TO ARMS

    On January first when we celebrated the arrival of the 21st century, there were some commentators who said that few, if any, veterans of World War II would survive the first decade of the new century. That view is entirely reasonable. The last shots were fired in that war in August, 1945. That was 57…

  • THE RIGHT WAY; THE WRONG WAY; THE ARMY WAY

    In recent months, it seems to me that there is renewed interest in hearing from veterans of World War II. Perhaps it is the building of the memorial on the Mall in Washington. Perhaps it has to do with the thought that very few of us will survive the first decade of this century. There…