Reviews for Child Soldiers; The Role of Children in Armed Conflict

The average rating for Child Soldiers; The Role of Children in Armed Conflict based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-04-23 00:00:00 Bryan Neeley It is notoriously difficult to find trustworthy, unbiased journalism (or even history) about the Middle East. One of the primary reasons for this unfortunate state of affairs is simply that this part of the world is extremely complex not only in terms of its history during the past century, but also in that even leaving relatively recent history aside does not notably diminish the level of complexity. The entire Middle East, and particularly the Levant, is a maze of political, religious, tribal and ethnic affiliations that can seem impossible to understand at first. This makes writing intelligently about the region, particularly within the limitations of journalism, a difficult proposition for even the most talented and experienced writers, especially if they do not have extensive knowledge of and/or long experience in that region. If the writer is attempting to employ the traditional journalistic device of dispassionate neutrality, it is possible that he or she can pull off a reasonably competent article or book by means of judicious research and/or with the help of more knowledgeable colleagues or sources. If, on the other hand, the writer has thrown the traditional ethics and practices of journalism into the gutter, and has furthermore willfully blinded himself to the existence of objective truth in obeisance to the dictates of ideology, reasonable competence is, at best, unlikely. Tony Clifton, unfortunately, falls squarely within that latter category of writers. During the collapse of Cambodia this so-called journalist was so blinded by ideology that he refused to believe the Khmer Rouge were capable of committing atrocities, despite the overwhelming evidence, until KR forces conquered Phnom Penh and indulged in their vicious butchery right in front of his eyes. Apparently, this nearly got him fired, as it damned well should have. I would love to ask Nicholas Proffitt (Clifton's editor at the time, and a journalist for whom I have a great deal of respect) what the hell he was thinking when he gave Clifton another chance. I suspect that decision reflects Mr. Proffitt's innate decency rather more than anything else; or perhaps he couldn't find anyone else he could send to Lebanon in a timely fashion. One way to determine the level of knowledge and/or ideological bias of anyone writing about post-1975 Lebanon is by paying attention to the nomenclature they use when referring to the various politico-military organisations in the country. A particularly salient example of this is the way in which the political party & militia led by the Gemayel family is referred to by any given writer. The official name of that organisation in (transliterated) Arabic is "K'taeb", which is translated literally into English as "phalanx". Knowledgable and unbiased writers will simply call this group what they called themselves: "K'taeb" (sometimes rendered as "Kataeb"). Writers with a leftist/marxist bias (or those who are merely stupid & ignorant) refer to the K'taeb as "the Phalangists", which is meant to evoke comparisons with General Franco's "Falangists" during the Spanish Civil War, and more pointedly with Franco's allies, Nazi Germany & Fascist Italy. The way these so-called "journalists" justify this usage is by referencing the fact that most educated Lebanese (particularly Christians) speak French as a second language, and disingenuously pointing to the French word for "K'taeb": "phalange". One would think that condemning the K'taeb for their alliance with the Israelis while simultaneously accusing them of being Nazi sympathizers or even neo-Nazis would immediately discredit any alleged "journalist" and make him (or her) an unemployable public laughing-stock, but that has unfortunately not been the case. Sadly, there are many other ways in which ideologues (of both left & right) or the ignorant & lazy have twisted their so-called "reportage" from the Levant as well, undoubtedly exacerbating the already brutal suffering of all the poor souls attempting to survive the catastrophic wars in that region... As for the incredibly moving, indeed heart-wrenching photographs of Catherine Leroy, for these I have nothing but praise. I have been familiar for many years with the work she did in Indo-China during the late 1960s & early 1970s (not to mention the innumerable stories about her exceptional courage), and in my view she was one of the greatest combat photographers & photojournalists. Mademoiselle Leroy was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1976 for her coverage of the Lebanese Civil War, the first woman to be so honored. I had not heard of her death, almost exactly 12 years ago, and was shocked and saddened to discover that she had passed away. Catherine Leroy deserved a better collaborator than Tony Clifton- everything good about this book is due to her photographs, and everything bad about it is due to Clifton's mendacious, self-serving prose. It is truly shameful that no-one has published a career retrospective of Mademoiselle Leroy's work. For the moment, though it is a small thing indeed, I would simply like to dedicate this review to her memory... Catherine Leroy (27 August 1944-08 July 2006) R.I.P.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-06-08 00:00:00 Keith Mitchell Amazing. Not only are the writing and the photographs superbly done, the author seems prescient in his take on the Lebanese war and its impact. In his first chapter he writes, "God Cried is not objective and could never have been". I appreciated that he didn't try to portray "both" sides or "ALL" sides, as it seemed in Lebanon's wars. People seem to forget that Lebanon's war in 1982 ceased to be a Civil War when Israel invaded and bombed the crap out of West Beirut for three months. This book is about that summer. His opinions on why Israel destroyed West Beirut that summer are a bit scary to read over 30 years later, just as the (third) Israeli invasion of Gaza (hopefully) comes to an end. This book will make you think. And cry.