Bob Collins
Is it too soon for honest talk about the Vietnam War? The Pentagon is planning a 50-year anniversary website of the war and the old band is getting back together to oppose it, the New York Times reports. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
War
The Nobel Peace Prize committee has made some bonehead choices in recent years, but today’s announcement that Malala Yousafza is the recipient is about as perfect as any selection has ever been. Read more →
KARE 11’s investigation into why Veterans Administration records show a man who died while waiting for an appointment allegedly canceled an appointment four days after he died has led to a potential new scandal: bonuses that were handed out based on phony records. Read more →
Reza Baluchi had the right idea. He wanted to “run” through dozens of countries to raise a little awareness for the fleeting concept that maybe people should stop trying to kill each other, and that a little more effort should be put into helping the world’s children.
Read more →
NPR has apparently been getting a lot of pushback on the subject with each subsequent execution — beheading, if you will. Read more →
It was odd staging when President Obama announced a new war for the United States today. He did so on the lawn of the White House rather than behind a desk in the Oval Office. Read more →
The Chisholm-based Minnesota National Guard 114th Transportation Company came home from nine months in Afghanistan this morning. Read more →
In May 1970, members of the National Guard in Ohio fired a volley of 67 bullets and took just 13 seconds to kill four unarmed college students because they were protesting a war.
Jeffrey Miller was standing in front of the soldiers and took a single bullet into the mouth.
No joke. Read more →
It’s been a little more than 70 years Major Don Beerbower, an ace pilot, was shot down and died in Saint-Thierry. But today, the town will dedicate a monument to the 22-year-old from Hill City, MN., who might’ve had a big career in buttermaking (he was studying it in Iowa State) had the war not broken out when it did. Read more →
Decades later, Douglas Ward was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the highest medal of honor from the French government, for his service during World War II. Read more →
KMSP provides a perfect example of the threat within with its report that Abdirahmaan Muhumed, the second man with Minneapolis connections to die fighting for ISIS, was close to terrorism’s weapon of choice in the U.S. He worked at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Two former employees confirmed working with Muhumed at Delta Global Services, Read more →
Substitute “killed” or “murdered” or “executed” for beheaded in this headline and does it have the same impact? Probably not. We’re generally more desensitized to the atrocities of war and terrorism and the Islamic extremists know that. Beheading carries its own terror. So should we be complicit in furthering their terror? Or is there an Read more →
After a decade of war, a peace group hangs up its signs Read more →
No doubt there are legitimate terrorist threats to the world’s aviation system — that much is certainly obvious — but we’re going to suggest that this isn’t really one of them. Read more →
People like Douglas McAuthur McCain scare the heck out of people. He was apparently a nice guy who was also a killer fighting on behalf of the despicable and subhuman ISIS, Read more →