Book Review: War Is A Force Which Gives Us Meaning

War Is A Force Which Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges.  Public Affairs: New York, 2002.

Chris Hedges, a foreign correspondent for 15 years, many of them for the New York Times, has written a passionate, exciting and disturbing book in which he tries to understand the enduring attraction of war. Hedges, in his long career covering wars and conflicts from the Balkans to Central America to the Middle East, has directly witnessed war at its worst. His reflections make for absorbing and disquieting reading. This book cuts through much posturing and folly and goes directly to the heart.

An extraordinary writer, Hedges weaves in the stories of people and events he personally witnessed in conflicts he reported on and he mixes these with quotes from the Odyssey and the Illiad and from Shakespeare. He concludes that war is an enticing elixir which provides us with, “purpose, meaning and a reason for living.” By no means a pacifist, Hedges reveals that he and other war correspondents in Sarajevo in the early nineties yearned for military intervention to stop the genocidal killing there.

Hedges takes us for a thrilling ride as he inquires into and explores the issues of myth-making in war, nationalism and the dark side of war, the ugliness that can overcome even decent men and women who are sucked up into the trance of destruction and either/or thinking that seems to define the state of war. The rare few who retain their moral center in the maelstrom of war do so through small, personal acts of courage and generosity to others, often former friends now labeled the “enemy”.

Hedges reports that he never slept well when reporting in war zones. In those places he sought out the company of couples who loved each other, and felt something healing in their presence, and in their homes at night he always slept well. Love, he concludes in the end, is the only force that can counter the deadly trance of war.

I got this book when it came out and was reading it during the run up to the Iraq War.  It was a surreal experience to read this book while almost simultaneously listening to President Bush on the evening news.

I cannot recommend this brilliant book highly enough. Read it and you will be changed forever.