War and Memory in the Twentieth Century Book

Read this book to be disturbed. The author is a seasoned war correspondent who's been in the thick of warfare from El Salvador and Guatemala to Iraq and Bosnia. It is an anti-war treatise by a man who admits being addicted to war.

Hedges describes that he is "hooked" on the narcotic of war, on the rush that it gives. It's a world where power is all that matters. The meek do not inherit the Earth; they are murdered, and then often mutilated. The book is a philosophical inquiry into What War Is. It feels like it gives meaning to the lives of the men fighting it, he says, but it does so by playing to our most animal instincts, and by obscuring and numbing all that make our regular lives joyful. And by destroying individualism, turning people into objects, and life into a myth.

I read the book with a yellow highlighter in one hand, to mark the passages that really stuck with me. One:

"The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. . . . It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble." (page 3)

Another:

"Most of those who are thrust into combat soon find it impossible to maintain the mythic perception of war. . . . Wars that lose their mythic stature for the public, such as Korea or Vietnam, are doomed to failure, for war is exposed for what it is - organized murder." (page 21)

Here is a description of what war does to us: Our minds, our culture, our love of our fellow man. It makes us lie to ourselves and to each other. The book was published in 2002, after the 9/11 attacks, and just on the eve of America's invasion of Iraq. It describes how a culture can censor itself into believing a great cause and squash the speech of any who disagree (e.g., Scott Ritter, or The Dixie Chicks). Another quote:

"By destroying authentic culture - that which allows us to question and examine ourselves and our society - the state erodes the moral fabric. It is replaced with a warped version of reality. The enemy is dehumanized; the universe starkly divided between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. . . . Cultural or national symbols that do not support the crusade are often ruthlessly removed." (page 63)

Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mutilation, the killing of innocents; it is all the side of war unseen to those supporting it. The war is enabled by myth, and the myth is a lie. The lie is captivating and grabs us all. Every nation feels like it is fighting the ultimate evil, and they have no choice but to defeat it. The war will only end when the lie has collapsed under overwhelming evidence - hard-fought, over a long time. All that is left when the lie disappears is guilt, and shame, and the holes in people's lives where loved ones used to be. And the anger of the victims: The seeds of the next war.