A few months ago, headlines screamed out about Syria. America was furious that the Syrian president was wrongfully mistreating his own citizens and the U.S. was ready to step in. Suddenly, the news died down and switched focus to Russia invading the Ukraine. The news no longer provided adequate coverage and Americans were left in the dark.
By Marykate Usina | gargoyle@flagler.edu
It was 3 a.m., the cusp of a new day when my phone rang, flashing a six-digit military number across my screen. A number I loved and hated seeing because there are two voices that could be on the other end: Daniel, or his buddy Brandon. If it were the latter, Daniel wouldn’t be coming home.
By Cal Colgan | jcolgan@flagler.edu
Last year, Zack Thomas Paull traded in his textbooks for camouflage and joined the United States Marine Corps.
After Paull’s unit, the Second Battalion, Ninth Marine Regiment [2/9], finished its training in Parris Island, S.C., the military brass shipped the unit off to Afghanistan. Paull has spent the past 6 months in Marjah, an agricultural district in the Helmand Province.
By Cal Colgan | jcolgan@flagler.edu
My cousin – let’s call him “Bill” – is a piece of garbage. It’s hard to be the “black sheep” in a family of eccentrics, but Bill accomplished that feat. After years of drug abuse and a caustic marriage with his high school sweetheart that ended in divorce, Bill left his ex-wife and children and signed up for the Army National Guard.
He thought going to Iraq would transform him into a decent human being, but he ended up in Fallujah in 2007, when it was largely held by the Iraqi insurgency.
By Cal Colgan | JColgan@flagler.edu
Illustration by Hahau Yisrael
Last month, Barack Obama became the third U.S. president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee lauded Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
But unlike the countless followers of the lunatic Glenn Beck who think our 44th president is turning our country into Stalinist Russia, there is a more rational argument to be made against Obama’s recent award.