Lt. General Roméo Dallaire

"The ultimate focus of the rest of my life is to eradicate the use of child soldiers and to eliminate even the thought of the use of children as instruments of war." —Roméo Dallaire

In conflicts around the world, there is an increasingly popular weapon system that requires negligible technology, is simple to sustain, has unlimited versatility and incredible capacity for both loyalty and barbarism. In fact, there is no more complete end-to-end weapon system in the inventory of war-machines. What are these cheap, renewable, plentiful, sophisticated and expendable weapons? Children.

Roméo Dallaire was first confronted with child soldiers in unnamed villages on the tops of the thousand hills of Rwanda during the genocide of 1994. The dilemma of the adult soldier who faced them is beautifully expressed in his book's title: when children are shooting at you, they are soldiers, but as soon as they are wounded or killed they are children once again.

Believing that not one of us should tolerate a child being used in this fashion, Dallaire has made it his mission to end the use of child soldiers. In this book, he provides an intellectually daring and enlightening introduction to the child soldier phenomenon, as well as inspiring and concrete solutions to eradicate it

Podcast:
Download (30:00)

David Finkel- Pulitzer Prize Winner

David Finkel is a staff writer for The Washington Post, and is also the leader of the Post’s national reporting team. He won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2006 for a series of stories about U.S.-funded democracy efforts in Yemen. Finkel lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and two daughters.An eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War but of all wars, for all time.It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. “Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,” he told a sceptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic, Army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the Battalion nicknamed The Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad, and almost every grueling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front-lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

Podcast:
Download Show  (30:00)

Major-General Lewis Mackenzie "Soldiers Made Me Look Good"

Major-General Lewis Mackenzie (ret’d) was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, and has served in trouble spots around the world.In 1992, he commanded the un Protection Force that opened Sarajevo airport to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid. He published the best-selling Peacekeeper: The Road to Sarajevo after retiring from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1993; “A Soldier’s Peace,” a television documentary based on the book, won a New York Film Festival Award in 1996. His many honours include the Order of Canada and the United Nations Medal of Honour. Mackenzie is now a public affairs commentator on television and in the Globe and Mail and a sought-after lecturer on leadership and conflict resolution.


Podcast:
Download Show  (60:00)