Civilizations at their peak present curious spectacles. They ooze wealth and pride, produce fantastic art and technologies, all while shredding the foundations of their prosperity. Their citizens seem to believe they eclipse mundane restrictions of time and space. The monuments their predecessors have left in Rome, on Easter Island, in Egypt, in Venice, littered like warning beacons elsewhere throughout the world, demonstrate such faith may not match reality. A rock thrown skyward must believe, at the top of its arc, fleetingly, that it is flying. When we admire our great cities, we find it hard to believe that they will ever ...

300,000 U.S. troops have now served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands, including many in IVAW, are being sent back to war despite their trauma from previous deployments, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Military Sexual Trauma (MST). The reality is, military commanders are pushing service members far past human limits in order to continue the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Service members are not being screened systematically for mental trauma. In combat, there’s a shortage of behavioral health personnel, and soldiers are given psychotropic medications instead of comprehensive therapy. Commanders often ...