The Ghion Journal
Around the time of the 1999 World Trade Organization protests, commonly known here in the U.S. as the “Battle in Seattle”, I began delving into online independent media in more concerted way. Expanding beyond Democracy Now on my local Pacifica radio affiliate, I started poking around and discovered indymedia.org, Counterpunch and other sites. Within a couple of years of traversing this landscape, I came across the political writings and investigative journalism of Stan Goff.
Stan, a former Army Ranger, West Point instructor and Special Operations tactician, had served as an Airborne infantryman in Vietnam and, later, took part in military operations in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. This was an interesting background for a left-leaning journalist and peace activist. I was intrigued. For the first decade of the 2000s, I followed his work closely and read several of the books he began publishing. His 2004 book, Full Spectrum Disorder was especially engrossing, as he explored his work as a military tactician and how those experiences impacted his approach to politics.