Böcker av Phil Halton

In 1978, the tension on the streets of Managua was electric. The whole city teetered on the edge of becoming a warzone. The Somoza family held the people of Nicaragua in a stranglehold, stripping the country of everything of value and making beggars out of honest citizens. The only thing that kept them in power was the feared Guardia Nacional. In order to survive, Paco eked out a living as a street musician, busking and playing university parties. His politics were those of someone never sure of where he would get his next meal. But when a violent government crackdown erupts on the streets, he's forced to choose sides in order to survive. Thrust into a fierce guerrilla war, what begins for him as a struggle for survival becomes something more. The heavy cost of the revolution becomes clearer with every battle fought, and every traitor executed. Paco must find the balance between fighting for a cause he increasingly comes to embody, and maintaining his humanity.Every Arm Outstretched examines historical events through the lens of the human heart. How do we determine right and wrong when society itself has become corrupt? Do we owe our ultimate loyalty to our comrades or to our ideals? And can the end ever truly justify the means?

In the aftermath of an embarrassing attack against the Canadian Army in Afghanistan, desperate measures are needed to salvage their reputation.Enter Captain Leslie McNabb, a coward with a family legacy of posthumously rewarded heroism.He's assigned the task of creating the perception of success. The mission? Rebuild Ghunday, the Taliban-infested village responsible for the attack. The problem? The village only needs to be rebuilt because the Canadians destroyed it, and they don't want any more "help."Ghunday's ancient rivals in Deh Sarak, a village on the other side of the river valley, look on with disbelief as their enemies receive lavish help from the Canadians. The fact that they already have a girls' school and comparatively progressive attitudes seem to count against them. Their solution? Become the Canadians' enemies so they too can be destroyed and rebuilt anew.McNabb is stuck between the unreasonable demands of his superiors and the hostility of nearly everyone he meets. In the upside-down world of counterinsurgency, he tries to befriend his enemies while making enemies of his friends.Is it still called paranoia when everyone is actually out to get you?

The current conflict in Afghanistan is not about Western intervention, but part of a hundred-year war over the issues of modernity, secularism, and the centralization of power.