When the Eagle Flies with the Condor: a novel of the sixties

When the Eagle flies with the Condor, there will be peace and brotherhood among nations. This is a two thousand year old prophecy which goes something like this: the eagle represents North America today (and by extension other western, highly civilized and wealthy nations) and its emphasis on the intellect, science and wealth to the exclusion of the spirit. By contrast, the condor embodies a powerful spiritual connection to earth and our fellow creatures and represents not only the natives of Latin America, but the indigenous people from around the globe. It is the underlying theme of the novel, but the novel is about more than that. It is a story of brotherhood and love, revolution and war, survival and friendship, and begins with two coddled American youngsters whose father builds roads in an attempt to bring commerce to the natives of the backward and poverty stricken country of Bolivia. Their mother, uncomfortable and plagued with anxieties generated by constant political unrest, fills her days with trivialities and alcohol. The children's care-free lives are disrupted when they must return to the U.S. for reasons unknown to them at the time. What follows is the boy’s anti-social response to what he ultimately deems a godless universe and his sister’s painful withdrawal caused by fears of abandonment by her family. As the children move into adulthood, their reactions to these inimical forces result in his joining the army and deploying to Vietnam, and her returning to South America as a sort of apprentice shaman ministering to the needs of the natives by adhering to the teachings of the Kallawaya, the traveling medicine men who roam the cordilleras of the Andes. Their lives are played out against the backdrop of the 1960s and everything that volatile decade represents. They are players, yes, but they are astute observers as well, recognizing the similarities among the indigenous people of the world with their knowledge, latent power and untapped potential for good. Thus, the prophecy of The Eagle and the Condor comes into play with its message that at the beginning of the fifth Pachacuti, (the year 2000) the balance of power will shift and the indigenous peoples of the world will begin to resume their rightful place among nations.

The Magic of Fiction

As a child, when the world became too fraught with the typical trials of childhood along with atypical family upheavels,  I'd often head for the back yard and the swing or hammock or run upstairs to my room and  open up a book, escaping  into the world of fiction:  another family, another land, another life. 

It still works today.

Today, with all the tragedy and unrest in the world, the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the  Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, the current fighting in Libya, the constant political excoriation of our president, first because he didn't commit our forces to the fray, then because he waited too long and now because he didn't officially declare war and get approval from the Congress, there simply becomes too much negativity.  So what do I do? Of course,  I head for my room and begin to read, usually something I've read before, anything that will take me away to another world, different characters who live fascinating lives in exotic lands.


Is this a  childish reflex?  Maybe.  But I couldn't continue living my life with any semblance of sanity without it.   It is my protection  against all the
embroilments of the modern political world and prickly family involvements. I recommend it to others.  It's better than TV, a movie or both.  Fiction becomes a part of you -- it can wrap you up in a  rich labyrinthe of words and carry you off into a world of fantasy. 

I love my life, but my life becomes enriched when I can get my hands on a good piece of fiction. 

I realized today, that the reason I want to get back to my own novel and read it again and again are the characters.  I spent so many years with these people, they are like another family, friends that are cut from fabric that I selected and shaped by my own will and preference. Now that the book is finished, they are no longer daily companions and I miss them.

Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

And what's the solution for someone like me?  Continue to read, of course. Or -- you've got it! Write another book.

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes - a review

With all the pre-publication publicity about this book, I, like most, could not wait to get my hands on it -- not only because it was another salute to my generation, but because of the author's history in getting it published. If you are a serious writer today, you must marvel at the perseverance of Mr. Marlantes. It is my understanding that he began writing the novel in the seventies and finally published thirty plus years later. It is a lesson in tenacity as well as a lesson that publishers today don't know a great story when they see it. Take heed, fellow writers!

That said, I felt it was not an easy book to get into; it took several chapters for me to begin to bond with the characters and really feel the anguish of losing close friends, the pain of deprivation and the anger resulting from the abuse of these dedicated grunt Marines by their superior officers. But once I did, it was as though I were there, breathlessly climbing the mountains gaining purchase for an LZ or alternately digging holes in which to bury myself. I was being dropped green and scared into a hot combat zone just as was Lt. Waino Mellas. And much as he did, I soon came to love these guys and envy their camaraderie in battle, their loyalties and dis-loyalties and eventually become a part of it all. I marvel that today they can live "normal" lives with these experiences buried deep within them. Yes, I know the book is fiction but the facts are real.

As readers, I think we all experience the gamut of emotions of this novel: fury in witnessing the stupidity and arrogance of command that results in the deaths and mayhem of the members of Bravo Company, the emotionally wrenching realization one feels when he understands the total irrelevance of their efforts. They deplete themselves building bunkers atop Matterhorn and then are extracted before they can use them, leaving them conveniently vacant for the now powerful NVA to occupy and having to go back weeks or months later to recapture them in a battle that takes the lives of many of the main characters.

Mellas is the protagonist and he and the other grunts perform with valor. Their world, however, has been reduced to that company, that platoon, that unit, and to that small hole in the earth that protects them and their brothers from death. Yet, death almost becomes a welcome companion when they are trapped again and again behind enemy lines with no hope of food, water, ammunition or the evacuation of their wounded friends. I could have read the entire book in a day, except for the length of it, so involved was I in their struggle -- one gritty page after another, one heart-breaking, back-breaking hump after another. Bravo to Bravo Company and to Karl Marlantes not just for the medals but for the insight into what it was like back then.

Matterhorn is not a perfect book (I take issue with his repeated use of "kids" while referring to the Marines as it suggests to me at least, the narrative voice is viewing the action from a perspective of forty years rather than from a foxhole occupied by Mellas). But it is an important one, as it portrays war as raw and brutally heartless instead of the glorified Hollywood rendition of it. Referring to the thousands of Vietnamese who perished as "gooks" annoyed and offended me, yet I understand that I am viewing a very unpopular war from a revisionist frame of mind; I realize this intellectually but can't help recoiling from it.

Aside from these reservations, it might be a good book for young people today to read. Some of our coddled youth should come to appreciate what their fathers and grandfathers endured in order for them to live the lives they live. And for the others -- those who are fighting now in war zones around the world and those who are contemplating it -- take a moment and consider what this book reveals, that's all I ask.

Was Michael Steele Right?

I have been a devotee of Barack Obama and no great fan of the current Republican Party; however, I'm thinking Michael Steele hit it head on when he claimed Afghanistan is now Obama's war, certainly because of the recent escalation of troops and ill-advised policies.

And Steele is not the only one; to wit, Mathew Hoh, a marine combat veteran and foreign affairs expert who resigned on principle last year because of the administration's Afghanistan policies. Take heed, President Obama. Rethink you war policies as well as your campaign rhetoric.

Afghanistan - Why are we There?

As I understand it, the strategy for what is known as AF-PAK is to keep Al Qaeda out, strengthen and support a corrupt government, teach the police and military to read and keep the Taliban under control.

In order to do that we are pumping an approximate 10 billion dollars a year into an annual economy that does not amount to much more than that, directing it mainly to the military, with much of it landing in the hands of the war lords and government officials who continue to legitimize corruption. What will happen to the Afghanistan government if we continue to do this year after year? With its newly acquired power and literacy, the military could very well take over and we may be looking at a military coup down the road. And if Al Qaeda is sponsoring terrorism all over Asia, Somalia and the rest of the world anyway, why do we continue to support Afghanistan to keep them out. It's the same flawed philosophy that took us to Vietnam in the sixties; ie, "the domino theory" which was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Of course, we don't want another attack on our homeland. But we are subjecting our citizenry to a far more dangerous situation than terrorism by spending billions of dollars to support foreign countries that should be doing it themselves, when we should be establishing WPA type projects and encouraging the private sector to hire. Private businesses have no confidence in the administration because of the current state of the economy, and the economy is currently in this state because of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When we first invaded the country in 2001, we were fighting a war -- counter terrorism. Now, we are not (exactly) fighting a war, we are trying to build a country that has never existed before. I say build, not re-build because Afghanistan has never had a centralized government and is generally made up of fiercely traditional tribes ruled or not ruled by Taliban. Why do we think that we can change what the Russians, the British and Alexander the Great could not? On top of that, our military is in greater danger because they are doing this with one hand tied behind their backs. If we continue along this course, we may well end up in that metaphoric mess known as a "quagmire." Or are we there already?

Change indeed!