Something of a shout out must go to former Soundtracksforthem interviewee Dahr Jamail, and his fellow Haymarket Books author Camilio Mejia for winning some of the top spots over at Alternet’s “Best Progressive Books of 2007.” Dahr got his just deserts for a brilliant inside account of the occupation in Iraq through the eyes of an embedded journalist in his book Beyond the Green Zone. The Mejia book is one I’ve yet to read, but it’s called Road From Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilio Mejia and most likely takes in the authors own experiences, he was sentenced to a year in prison in May of 2004 after applying for CO status and refusing to serve in combat.

Haymarket Books is a small, independent left wing book publishing house over in the states, that consistently churn out some of the most accessible and interesting books on contemporary issues – ranging from the commercialization of sport, urban theory and the occupation of Iraq. It seems Dahr is also working on a new book for Haymarket about the fascinating GI revolt of the 1960′s. That’s a topic that was already the subject of a Haymarket title, by David Cortright called Soldiers in Revolt.

Anyone needing a quick fix on the subject could do worse than scampering off and looking for a torrent of the movie advertised in the accompanying photo. With another Winter Soldier event coming up stateside, we’ll be going a little political heavy here for a post or three at Soundtracksforthem, we’ve got interviews with a dissident troop serving in Iraq, a discussion with the director of the brilliant Sir, No Sir – a documentary on the uniformed anti-war movement and then, that’s about it. Basically most of this arises as the scrap book left overs from an article on anti-war resisters hiding out in Toronto that I worked on for Totally Dublin. I think their latest is out this week, and most likely, I’ll post that article and some photos I took while writing it shortly after that.