October 3, 2006 — James Carroll, op-ed columnist for the Boston Globe and author of House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power discussed the effects of the military in America at the Shorenstein Center’s brown-bag lunch.
Carroll stated that the strength of America’s military bureaucracy requires the cooperation of “every large institution in American life” including the news media.
After 9/11, he explained, many journalists refrained from criticizing government policy because “Americans weren’t ready for it.” But, Carroll said, dissenting voices “were there” after 9/11 and are there today.
What can be done to counteract the effect of the military on American society? “The power of nonviolence has to be reaffirmed,” concluded Carroll, “the power of alternatives to war.”
