Saturday, September 12, 2009 5:00pm Eastern

The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan

Chat with Dahr Jamail about his new book. Hosted by Gareth Porter, over at FDL, 5pm ET

Despite tremendous public sentiment against the American-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, ordinary citizens and US soldiers continue to die every day. Despite promises from politicians of both parties, an unjust and unwinnable war grinds on with no clear end in sight. But as award-winning journalist Dahr Jamail shows, a new generation of American soldiers is beginning to take opposition into their own hands.

As one of the first and few unembedded Western journalists to report the truth about how the United States has destroyed, not liberated, Iraqi society in his book Beyond the Green Zone, Jamail now investigates the under-reported but growing antiwar resistance of American GIs, embodied in new organizations like Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Gathering the stories of these courageous men and women, Jamail shows us that far from “supporting our troops,” politicians have betrayed them at every turn. Finally, Jamail shows us that the true heroes of the criminal tragedy of the Iraq War are those brave enough to say no.

Dahr Jamail is author of the book Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq. Jamail’s work has been featured on National Public Radio, the Guardian, The Nation, and The Progressive. He has received many awards for his reportage, including the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.

Dahr Jamail’s reporting from Iraq has been published in newspapers and magazine worldwide. He has appeared on Democracy Now! as a regular guest, as well as BBC, Pacifia Radio, and numerous other networks. (Barnes & Noble)