Dennis Latham: Life, Fiction, and the Pursuit of Madness

I took a lot of heat a few years back from the fanatic (you're with Republicans or you're a traitor) people when the war started because I said it would be another Vietnam. Turns out I was right. But that was a no-brainer for someone who had been in military combat. There are no real surprises during war; there are only options, and those options are always limited. Why they couldn't see that in Washington is beyond me? Guess it was because none of them had actually been in combat or active military. They just didn't have a clue... Each time things go bad (or get worse) in Iraq, Korea rears up and draws attention away from just how bad things are in Iraq. Sudden numerous terrorist threats infect the news. Our government scares us with information that North Korea may sell nuclear devices to terrorists. Using common sense, a person could figure that if the terrorists wanted nuclear bombs, they could get them in Pakistan, where they operate base camps and you can buy alm...

People often say I'm a scary guy. My youngest daughter always tells me how all her male friends were terrified of me. I grew up rough, in the tenement Bottoms and Over the Rhine in Cincinnati. By age six, I had fought in over 100 street fights, had been slashed three times with a knife, and had broken my nose in a fight where the other boy almost died from head injury. My Italian mother often fought in the street. She made me fight my first battle at age five: some shoeless kid wearing a womans' stocking on his shaved head because he had ringworm. I didn't know why he wanted to hurt me. I was afraid of him because of the ringworm. The kid kept pushing me. My mother came down, grabbed my arm and pushed me forward. Something snapped inside and I went after him. I punched him down fast and kicked him several times in the head with my heavy shoes. It was over quick. I had won my first fight. My father was ox strong and a street fighter from the West End. My grandfather, Tony ...