About Benj Demott

This was originally published in First of the Month in 2004. I first sailed to Tangiers in 1964, aboard a Kaiser-built concrete poured WW2 Liberty ship operated by the Yugolinia line. From New York at 99 dollars for the passage: The Beatnik Express. My lady friend and I rented a terraced apartment overlooking the northern … Read more

A defender of Israel’s Gaza incursion emailed anti-Islamists the following excerpt from a front page story, “Fighter Sees His Paradise in Gaza’s Pain,” in the January 9 New York Times: 21 year old militant with Islamic Jihad awaits treatment for shrapnel wounds: “Hurry, I must get back so I can keep fighting…We are fighting the … Read more

Fr. Frechette, a priest-doctor (and hero of our time) who’s worked for a generation in Haiti, wrote this Christmas reflection last December, but it will always be in season. HOW BEAUTIFUL UPON THE MOUNTAINS ARE THE FEET of the one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace; who brings the good news of salvation; who … Read more

Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace by Ralph Peters Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World by Ralph Peters Fighting for the Future: Will America Triumph? by Ralph Peters Flames of Heaven: A Novel of the End of the Soviet Union by Ralph Peters The Perfect Soldier by Ralph Peters The Devil’s Garden by Ralph … Read more

First Thought: if you came of age in the late nineteen sixties, the assertions about Mr. Kerrey’s participation in a massacre in Vietnam trigger very powerful moral reflexes – and it is the nature of a reflex to come into play faster than thought. Reflex condemnations of Kerrey – and reflex exonerations of him – … Read more