In the Case of Iraq, a War Story Might Best Take Place on U.S. Soil

In the last few days, reports appeared about how the Pulitzer committee awarded their prestigious prize to topics like the luxury bordello scandals involving elected officials, Thomas Jefferson’s various mistresses, and international sex trafficking, among others.

No doubt these subjects are important and sizzle in the public mind, yet something feels missing—a shoe lace untied, a hole worn through a pocket by a house key, or that war lasting more than 7 years now.

The Pulitzer committee grants awards for socially redeeming art, beautiful music, or fine writing that pierces the veil of deception in high places. Plenty of journalists and writers have accomplished this on the subject of Operation Iraqi Freedom, focusing not on the sizzling sex scandals but on the more primitive forms of brutality and rape in the chaos of a destroyed country.

Does this explain why the war topic was passed over this year, the seventh of a long war?

The Pulitzer was founded on values of professional journalism and artistic merit. Has it turned its eyes to new, more important subjects than the U.S. invasion of another country?

If you consider how mainstream media and journalism have botched so many opportunities to pierce the veil of high-power deception, you’ll not be surprised that a prestigious prize for journalism shows a lack of interest in Iraq, war, soldiers and civilians dying. After all, how many newspapers, or congressmen for that matter, risked dissent from the W administration during the wake of the hyped-up, politically exploited, hysterical 9/11 reaction?

Plenty of novels and nonfiction books criticized the war and risked public outrage and the lethal label of “un-American” during the period when the native authority of W and Cheney commanded support for their own cleverly crafted, massive destruction and public deception. In this sense, the Iraq war took place more right here in the U.S. than in the bombing missions and in the Humvees where blood spills out to this day.

Perhaps Americans at home just don’t have the stomach to think of the war anymore—though the war was, and still is, fundamentally right here at home. The battleground is in the American political arena. Now more than ever, this becomes clear as the reports pile up to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that the war was planned long before the causus belli –the justification and the opportunity that presented itself in the form of the 9/11 attack.

America’s political system failed—and so did its journalism. Collectively, reflecting our country’s culture, we Americans wanted to find a fast solution to an otherwise complicated situation. Suddenly faced with difficult decisions and questions, we clung tightly to our Bibles, searching for quick answers and whispering curses to the Muslims in a “crusade,” as W often called it. We did not want to analyze the facts before we reacted. We wanted to follow a leader, regardless of how nefarious and duplicitous the power brokers played their hand in a twisted plan.

Ironically, these officials, W and Cheney, were not even elected officials, rather just appointed hastily by a small group of extremists at the Supreme Court. This is why the real battleground has always been right here at home. It began as a struggle for the power to impose an ideological belief on a democracy. By grasping the power to command, the extreme American ideologues overreacted, waged a war of political passion, and thus fulfilled the greatest wishes, plans, and prayers of the likes of Osama bin Laden.

So, a nonfiction book, and especially a novel about the war, might best be situated at home, not in the smoking battlegrounds where the bombs explode. This war is all about political ideology that affects every aspect of American culture and economics. This war is not about WMDs, not about a brutal tryant, not about evil terrorists, and not about the security of our nation.

Publisher's News Wire: Mojave Winds

Publishers News Wire
Mark Biskeborn's New Book Concerns Difficulties Faced by Iraq Veterans

Published: Thu, 21 Feb 2008, 11:57 EDT
By Angela Polchat Staff Writer, Publishers Newswire


IRVINE, Calif. -- Mojave Winds, (ISBN: 978-0-9801383-0-6), a novel by Mark Biskeborn, highlights the growing social impact on Iraq War veterans returning home, and their struggles to reintegrate to the civilian world.

The recent book by author, Mark Biskeborn, "Mojave Winds," has been met with wide acceptance, attracting a great deal of attention with its controversial storyline:

A combat veteran returns from the Iraq War, struggles to readapt to normal life, only to find conflict in the United States as well.

The new Stop-Loss law imposes unprecedented hardships on soldiers now. The prolonged combat missions increase tensions complicating soldiers' return to daily life- post-traumatic-stress, divorce, child custody, financial dread, and unemployment. These and other calamities unravel soldiers' nerves when they finally do get to come home. This book demonstrates the public concern over what happens when trained warriors show up on the streets.

With the flare-ups of domestic terrorism within U.S. borders, this book also reminds readers that the battles have now made their way to the United States as well. Fighting the enemy 'over there,' does not exclude fighting them here.

In the past two weeks, over 20,000 new visitors have flooded the author's website, http://www.markbiskeborn.com. This includes his online blog discussing the issues facing soldiers on extended missions. The impact of these American policies has received a sudden influx of new public attention. Traffic has also spiked from searches relating to the calamities of prolonged military tours of duty and concern for domestic terrorism.

The rapid spread of interest in Mojave Winds has been felt in the publishing world as well. The book was selected as a feature for the Southern California Writers Conference held in San Diego this past weekend. The prestigious International Thriller Writers conference in New York will feature Mojave Winds (thrillerwriters.org). The Writers Digest newsletter also features Mojave Winds (writersdigest.com) as the author will attend the Writers' Digest conference in L.A., 28 May.

The author, Mark Biskeborn, has been a contributing author for several blogs, especially The Smirking Chimp, and has received a swarm of letters and comments from his regular weekly writings. Mark is currently scheduled to appear at the International Thriller Writers Conference and the Maui Writers Conference this year. Amazon Shorts has featured several of his short stories recently.

As a result of Mojave Winds unprecedented sales success and rapidly growing popularity, several mainstream publishing houses are considering author Mark Biskeborn while he works to complete his next novel.

Mojave Winds is now available through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and many other booksellers, as well as the Author's own site.

The current state of affairs and the highly volatile political discussion concerning the legality of the Stop-Loss policy, the calamities that returning U.S. veterans now face, and the concerns over domestic terrorism continue to fuel public interest in the book. While the book is considered fiction, many of the issues discussed in its chapters are anchored in current affairs in the U.S. and world news events.

About Mojave Winds and Mark Biskeborn:

Mojave Winds, a novel by author Mark Biskeborn, depicts the difficulties protagonist Kris Klug faces; a returning Iraq War veteran, he struggles to integrate back into the civilian world. He suffers from flashbacks from his war experience, the drastic difference in civilian life, and the effects of post-traumatic stress. He also is shocked to discover that the war has followed him back home to the U.S., as a series of events puts him in the cross hairs of domestic terrorism. Despite the high-tension stakes, with an Islamist gang at his heels, he meets a classical dancer, Sheila, whom he finds especially intriguing while crossing the Mojave to Las Vegas.

The author is a long time resident of California, and has also lived and worked many years abroad. He has contributed many non-fiction articles, essays, and book reviews to magazine publications and blogs. He also has had several short stories featured recently on Amazon Shorts. He is now completing a sequel novel, Follow the Sufi's Ghost, for release in winter, 2008.

For more information on the book or the author, or to order online, visit http://www.markbiskeborn.com or call 949-293-2016.