Happy Birthday Ishmael Beah

Today is Ishmael Beah's birthday, author of "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier." This is a very sobering work about war. War at its coldest and meanest. It is a book that one and all should read, especially arm chair warriors that like to support war without ever having to participate in one. "Never support a war you are not willing to take up arms in and fight in yourself because you are asking others to do your killing for you." If you think war is a worthwhile action and you can bend your index finger, go sign up and do your own killing.

Ishmael now lives in the U.S. When interviewed him over a year ago, he was working on helping other former boy soldiers and trying to stop the use of children in the military.