There has been very little time in the history of the civilized world when no country has been in conflict with either itself or another country. Since before its birth as a nation, America has been involved in war and in the past century has been the major power on the battlefront. From each war era, spring fresh works of literature either based on or written in response to these conflicts. Some of these do what the media cannot and set the record straight, while others exacerbate the myths that are created in wartime.
Like all the others, the War on Terrorism has brought a wave of new books to the shelves. One that stands out from others is the national bestseller "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning," written by New York Times journalist and war correspondent Chris Hedges. Having covered insurgence and war all over the world, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, the West Bank and Gaza, the Sudan and Yemen, Algeria and the Punjab, the Gulf War, southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, Hedges endured more than his fare share of life-or-death situations.
This veteran correspondent has been ambushed, shot at, captured, imprisoned and beaten by military police. He has witnessed countless atrocities done against innocent people and the violent deaths of many people whom he had known personally. While putting himself in harm's way so America could stay informed, he left behind a wife and two children on each mission.
What called him to take on dangerous tasks like these? What was worth sleeping in the dirt for? Being shot at and shelled? As much as Hedges hated it, war was like a drug he consumed and was addicted to for many years. "It is peddled by mythmakers — historians, war correspondents, filmmakers, novelists, and the state — all of whom endow it with qualities it often does possess: excitement, exoticism, power, chances to rise above our small stations in life and a bizarre and fantastic universe that has a grotesque and dark beauty" (3).
How else can Hedges provide those of us who know little about war besides what we read and see on the television besides giving it to us in the words and experiences of him and the wars’ victims. Hedges brings all of his experiences as well as his distinguished education of Christian theology and philosophy from Harvard University into this essay-like work of non-fiction.
The literary world is full of memoirs and fictional accounts of wars dating back all the way to the Crusades and Ancient Rome and Greece. It is literature of combat like Homer's "The Iliad" and numerous plays by Shakespeare as well as historical and personal accounts that Chris Hedges references in his academic and philosophical analysis of as well as the basis for his personal remarks regarding the institution of war.
His book is not meant to bash the current administration nor to lay blame on any one individual or group, but to make people think about the very institution of war, about what Hedges calls "The Myth of War." He says, "Ethnic conflicts and insurgencies of our time … are not religious wars. They are not clashes between cultures or civilizations, nor are they the result of ancient ethnic hatreds. They are manufactured wars, born out of the collapse of civil societies, perpetuated by fear, greed, and paranoia" (20). The United States, under multiple administrations has based our responses, or lack there of, in countries like Bosnia on such myths.
By exposing this myth, Hedges hopes to give a clear warning to those who may use the emotions surrounding war for political gain. Nationalism should not be the plague Hedges describes it as, where everyone throws their own beliefs to the wind to follow what the government says or does. Hedges uses the Junta of Argentina and the Third Reich as examples of how nationalism can destroy a person's own moral being.
As a reporter in war-torn countries, Hedges was given an opportunity to disseminate these myths. Whether the conflict was between the Junta and the Argentineans, the Palestinians and Israelis or the Serbs and Muslims, each group held its own belief about what was happening to their people.
I was still a child when the Gulf War was going on, yet I can remember the nightly televised reports from overseas. Hedges refers to these in his book as entertainment or fodder for the people at home, not the muckraking many reporters imagine doing on the front. Years later, there is still a disconnect for me about what happened because even though the Gulf War is a part of America's history as much as any other war, we never seemed to make it that far in the three years of U.S. history.
There are so many people for whom there is no need of a textbook — they lived it and survived it but knew others who did not. What Hedges provides in this book is what veterans have known and felt for years. It is the veterans of combat and correspondence whom we should seek in our quest for knowledge and self-enlightenment on this very serious topic.
"War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" is a book every adult should have on his or her book list. Regardless of our stance on the war, Hedges provides us with a first-hand experience, a gripping portrayal of the lives of those who live in constant fear for their lives and the lives of their families.
As disturbing as some might find the many victims' stories, of mass executions, funerals and shooting people for sport, Hedges uses these graphic accounts as examples of what could happen to our country if we let the utopian (if there is such a thing) idea of war entice us or let our allegiance to our nation cloud our judgment. Hedges tells us to look into ourselves and to those who have experienced what war can do before we end up like many parts of our world.
Meghan Dunlap is a junior majoring in Spanish and elementary education. Let her know how you feel about "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" or other books like it by e-mailing her at [email protected].
