CULTURAL & POLITICAL ANALYSTS

CAMILLO "MAC" BICA ARTICLES ON HAND

Camillo “Mac” Bica, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His focus is in Ethics, particularly as it applies to war and warriors. As a veteran recovering from his experiences as a United States Marine Corps Officer during the Vietnam War, he founded, and coordinated for five years, the Veterans Self-Help Initiative, a therapeutic community of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is a long-time activist for peace and justice, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founding member of the Long Island Chapter of Veterans for Peace. Articles by Dr. Bica have appeared in The Humanist Magazine, Znet, Truthout.com, Common Dreams, AntiWar.com, Monthly Review Zine, Foreign Policy in Focus, OpEdNews.Com, and numerous philosophical journals. Carmello now joins the CJO team as a Senior Contributing Editor, with a specialization in military matters.

The Frustrations of Activism || In Good Riddance Attention Whore, Cindy Sheehan’s resignation as the “face” of the anti-war movement, she makes clear the frustrations of speaking truth to power in a country that is more concerned with who will be the next American Idol than with the deaths of thousands of its own children and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. We who advocate peace understand and share Cindy’s frustration and dismay with the arrogance, ineptitude, and criminality of the current Administration, the moral and political cowardice of members of Congress...[READ ON]

Beyond PTSD: the Moral Casualties of War || According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, during the Iraq war, 56 percent of soldiers and Marines (henceforth I will use the term “soldiers” to include members of all branches, both male and female) have killed another human being, 20 percent admit being responsible for noncombatant deaths, and 94 percent had seen bodies and human remains..—> GREANVILLE'S JOURNAL [READ ON] ||

And in CJO regular sections: [READ ON]

A Compendium on the Iraq War || Judging by the intensity of the debate that plagued much of the 2004 presidential election, the divisiveness of the Vietnam war has not been resolved. If anything it has festered, inflamed by similar concerns and questions regarding the legality, morality, purpose, and necessity of the war in Iraq. [READ ON]

The Brotherhood of the Warrior (1) || We talk often of military service in war as a civic and patriotic duty. But as the realities of combat and of the battlefield become apparent, patriotic sentiments, political ideologies, and mythologies fade quickly beneath the screams of the unbearable pain of the mutilated and the dying. Ultimately, warriors fight, kill, and accept injury and death, neither for god nor for country, but from a personal code of honor, loyalty, commitment, and accountability to one’s comrades. [READ ON}