The Cold War’s Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace, Paul Thomas Chamberlin
Finishing this book really solidified for me the impunity of the leadership of military and government regimes (I mentioned this yesterday). Whether it was Giap or Khomeini sending massed human wave attacks at fortified positions, Rhee or Saddam Hussein executing scores of political rivals, or Begin and Sharon or Nixon ordering invasions or bombing raids that were guaranteed to kill innocent civilians, the key thing one notes is that all of these people escaped accountability for their actions. (Saddam was eventually executed and to some extent it was for his crimes, but 15+ years of running around after the massacres of Kurds and others is not enough punishment, in my opinion.)
I think I’m going to move onto other topics soon enough. All of this war stuff is really getting me down. School starts next week though, and I’m really going to have to keep my head down in my books in order to get the straight As I’m aiming for. So maybe books will have to wait. Or maybe I’ll just break up my day with short stories? Maybe I’ll start some Raymond Chandler, people really like him and the spines of his novels seem tiny.