Medea Benjamin

Very good account on what technology does to inter-state relations and how this affects life of ordinary people.

War is not meant to be bloodless, distant and perceived as a video-game. We live in a society that embraces desocialization as a way living - but basically this is nothing more than excuse to embrace total personal isolation as a way of life (much easier when you do not have to think about others but only of yourself) and removal of family [as a basic social unit] from everyday show more life. Whoever thinks that alienating from others is a way to go is terribly wrong. When society is split apart that society is not able to do anything at all.

So is it strange that dehumanization is now starting to find it's way in the activity so closely related to human society? Horrors of war are there for a reason - they are part of it. Without it war is becoming common thing, something that you hear on the news and skip it so you could move on with your favorite TV show. Be concerned when you do not even blink after hearing news of some war atrocity taking place somewhere in the world. Without the risk of loss of life, of destruction, without fear, war becomes an industry, something that people will find acceptable because, hey, it does not happen here but someplace over the seas and who cares about that - right?

War is an exception in politics, disregard the hawks who say that there is always some conflict around the corner. it is true but war is an exception, end to a means - it is not supposed to be a means to itself. Using war to start and run industries and create work-places is perversion by definition - does this mean that in order to have everything running in order war must be made persistent? War for the war's sake is a path to total obliteration of society and rise of all those social elements as described in very books of Orwell and Huxley. Are the people ready to go this way is up to them but one thing remains true - they cannot say they were ignorant of the facts. show less

A crucial overview of an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation.

“An indispensable primer. It can save your life — indeed all of our lives . . . NATO is a clear and present danger to world peace, a war machine run amok.”
— Jeffrey D. Sachs

“Read this book to understand how NATO promotes a logic of domination, not equality, or justice or peace.”
—Clare Daly, MEP

This book was filled with much needed inspiration and some practical information on how to keep the peace movement alive and well. I admire Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans and Diane Wilson and the other contributors to this book - if anyone can pull us out of the mess we're in, it will be the women!

Honduras.

A useful and educative first-person story of land reform struggles in Honduras, narrated by a campesina activist. Her story reveals the social justice aspect of Catholicism and serves as a balance to some of the world's narratives of church activities that disenfranchise poor communities. Alvarado's plain, matter of fact account stands in contrast to the government's response he group's actions inspire, which is often violent and repressive. An excellent illustration of how the show more battle against "communism" is often a battle against community. show less