People across the U.S. are making their opinions known as the war in Iran enters its seventh week, and perhaps none more so than military members. Active-duty soldiers and veterans are experiencing an array of emotions connected to the war, with some supporting the conflict and others vehemently against it. The differing feelings come as tensions in the Defense Department grow.

‘Powerful motivator’
Some soldiers are angry that the Iran conflict has been run with “strategic incoherence” because the president “hasn’t really been able to say with clarity to the American people what exactly this war is about,” Marine veteran Elliot Ackerman said to WBUR News. The number of people looking to leave the military had already been increasing, and the war against Iran has been a “powerful motivator,” Kat Lonsdorf and Tom Bowman said at NPR. 

Many soldiers are “airing their concerns and frustrations,” said Bill Galvin, who helps run the GI Rights Hotline for military discharge, to NPR. Most of the callers are “asking how to apply to become a conscientious objector,” and nearly all of them “mention the bombing” of a girls’ school in Iran on the first day of the war.

‘Many acknowledge the role Iran played’
Though many in the Armed Forces feel the conflict might become another “forever war,” others have more complex feelings. Some soldiers are largely against war but “also acknowledge the role Iran played behind the scenes” assisting other regional nations in Middle East wars, said Jeff Schogol and Patty Nieberg at Task & Purpose. Wars in the Middle East have “caused a lot of moral injury and PTSD among the veterans’ community,” but “at the same time, Iran again has been a party to this conflict over the last 25 years,” said Alex Plitsas, a former Army staff sergeant and Iraq veteran, to the outlet.

Some veterans feel that the war means Iran is “finally being held accountable,” said Schogol and Nieberg at Task & Purpose. Many younger soldiers are also “excited to deploy” to Iran, said Army veteran Juan Munoz to The Associated Press, because the war is “what needs to be done.” 

As the tensions and violence in the Gulf region spark an exodus from Dubai, many of the city’s wealthy former residents are heading to Milan. Though the city may not be the new Dubai, said Eastern Eye, it has become a “strategic second home for global elites” and a “compelling alternative for those prioritizing European stability.”

Obsession with reinvention
Italy’s flat-tax regime means that foreign residents pay $353,830 a year on all overseas income, which is “small change for the world’s wealthiest,” said The Guardian. Interest in living in Italy was taking off even before the Iran war, after Britain scrapped its non-domiciled status (a former tax classification for residents whose permanent home is outside the U.K., allowing them to pay U.K. tax only) and Portugal tightened similar rules.

But “tax policy alone does not explain the surge,” said the Economic Times. Italy’s “strong legal framework, EU membership and relatively stable economy” also make it a “compelling choice” for the privileged. As wealthy families move to “safer European bases,” Milan, in particular, is enjoying “historic spikes” in luxury real estate sales, with property prices in the city rising by 38% over five years.

“Unlike more poetic cities like Rome or Venice,” said The Times, Milan “actually works” and doesn’t have an issue with “overtourism.” Its “strategic location” offers “easy access to the lakes, mountains and coast,” and there’s an “obsession” with “reinvention,” so there’s “always something new to see or do.” 

Hotels, restaurants, bars and private members’ clubs are “cranking up the standards of hospitality” in Milan, which is also home to the Borsa Italiana stock exchange, leading banks and global fashion houses. And the “tap-in, tap-out” metro means commuters and visitors can “whizz around the city quicker than ever,” while a new “superfast” railway links the city center and Linate airport. 

Tax dumping
Whether Milan can permanently dethrone Dubai in the affections of the super-rich “remains to be seen,” said The Guardian. There are “still questions” about “how far Italy can push its advantage,” and French former Prime Minister François Bayrou has accused Italy of “tax dumping,” an allegation that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni dismissed as “utterly baseless.”

Hindu devotees carry burning torches in a procession as part of the Bisket Jatra festival to celebrate the Nepali New Year in Thimi, Nepal. The celebration marks the advent of spring and lasts for nine days.
Prakash Mathema / AFP / Getty Images

While conducting research for “Hot Sour Salty Sweet,” authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid traveled along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia over a few decades. The pair visited villages, snapped photos and documented recipes from both sides of the monumental body of water that defines and feeds parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and China. The resulting 330-plus page cookbook, published in 2000, is not easy to hold in one’s hand, much like the region’s diverse grandeur.

Variations of a common theme
The cookbook’s 12 chapters are a head-spinning exercise in dissimilarity, with so many common ingredients treated wildly unalike. Take the seafood chapter. A recipe from Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s “great inland lake,” melds smoked fish and unripe mangoes with a dressing of vinegar, shallots, galangal and fish sauce. In tom thit heo, from southern Vietnam, shrimp and thin slices of pork shoulder frolic in a stir-fry heady with lemongrass and black pepper. Simplest of all, salt-grilled catfish has its flesh slashed and loaded with coarse salt before a turn on a grill. Each dish howls with a common sense of place. Listen closely, and you hear the soft noise of distinguishability.

Paying respects
Decades before the notion of the “exotic” was proscribed, rightfully, and white journalists began learning how to remove themselves from the center of every story, Alford and Duguid, who are both white, liaised with more than 15 Southeast Asian ethnic groups for “Hot Sour Salty Sweet.” They did so with curiosity, capturing their subjects with careful research, stirring photos and clear-eyed writing. This is documentation as honoring.