Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Fighting and killing other human beings in a war does terrible things to the soldier, even if the war is a just, defensive, unavoidable war. Paul Fussell, who fought in the invasion of France from the south and was terribly wounded, tried to make that point in his books on war.
He said that in the [...]

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The Spanish Civil War began 75 years ago. The historian Stephen Payne blames the Left. They murdered rightist leaders hoping to provoke the army into rebellion. Then the Left could crush the army and have a free hand in reconstructing Spain and eliminating the right. It didn’t work out that way. The Right won and [...]

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When cultures collide, sometimes they borrow good ideas from each other, and sometimes bad ideas.

The encounter of Islam and the Christian West has given us algebra, but we have also taken over some of the unlovelier products of Islam.
Islam spread the idea of jihad as meaning not only an interior struggle against evil [...]

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Some critics of the killing of Osama Ben Laden think that since he was not shooting at the Seals, his killing was murder.
 
That is, killing in war is not murder only if the enemy is actively attacking you.
 
This sounds very chivalrous but has no relation to reality. Enemy soldiers (and generals) are legitimate targets even [...]

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I usually don’t comment on political developments, as I have an extremely low opinion of all (or almost all) politicians.
 
One hopes that politicians know what they are doing; I know that a lot of information from sensitive sources can’t be divulged to the public without risking informants’ lives and American security.
 
BUT
 
One does have to wonder [...]

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The New York Times each day publishes the names of the soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I read them each day and say a prayer for them. It is the least I can do for those who have died to keep me and my family safe. 
The names and home towns reveal a [...]

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The abortionist George Tiller was apparently killed by a pro-lifer. This has led to attacks on the pro-life movement at innately violent.
The widespread denunciations of the Vietnam War as illegal, unjust, cruel, and criminal, led students at Brandeis to plot the violent overthrow of the government.

On Sept. 23, 1970, Brandeis University woke up to [...]

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The movie Prince Caspian has some major differences from the book, and I think the movie is better for it.
 
As most reviewers have noted, the movie is darker than the book, and darker than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie.
 
The movie is about growing up, especially about male growing up, and the violence [...]

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We were in Cartagena, Spain, recently before we left for our cruise.
In the town square at the waterfront is an unusual war memorial: A Spanish memorial to the Spanish-American war, which Spain lost.

The monument has a sailor holding a dying soldier.

The victories are holding their laurel wreaths down.
The monument lists the great battle at Santiago, [...]

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