This is a few days old already, but worth reading: An interview with Gore Vidal in the L.A. Weekly. The interview deals with Vidal’s book, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, in which he argues that much of what has befallen America of late was caused by the government’s actions in foreign countries. Vidal tends to ramble a little but Marc Cooper, the interviewer, does not let him off easy. Vidal does make a couple of important points (e.g. the fact that finding Bin Laden is not a mission on the U.S. military’s agenda in Afghanistan, the whole myth of “us” vs. “them” originating in Washington and echoed by the media, etc.)
And Vidal is not the only writer upset with the government’s actions of late. Take a look at the Statement of Conscience signed by people like Russell Banks and Barbara Kingsolver.