War is a Force that Give us Meaning

I just finished War is a Force that Gives us Meaning by Chris Hedges for my American domestic and foreign policy course. What an incredible novel. Chris has a unique ability to explain the realities of war in a real and uncensored way because of his many personal experiences. He traveled throughout the world covering conflict zones as a war journalist. He explains how the press is censored, which is something I did not understand to what extent. For instance, he speaks about how during the Gulf War, journalists had to be escorted to certain areas always with  U.S. military personnel so that they could not see anything more than what the U.S. wanted them to see. I never realized that the press was censored in such a way by an exemplary democratic nation (a bit of sarcasm).
I believe this book was a form of healing for Chris because he has experienced so much death and suffering, it is overwhelming just from reading it. But what Chris hopes to remind us all, and which he accomplishes through this book, is that war is not the half ass truths we see depicted on the news or on film. It is not a "only the bad guys die and the right person wins" type of simplistic vision that we all hope to believe. It is a messy, ugly, depressing, sad, and inconceivable reality that everyone suffers from. The line between victim and perpetrator, good and bad, winners and losers blur as we witness rape camps, los desaparecidos, mass evacuation, looting and burning of homes, child soldiers and concentration camps. Furthermore, the real victims of war are the disenfranchised families who want nothing to do with the Serbian national rhetoric and the Palestinian children who are taunted by Israeli soldiers. The real victims are the lonely soldiers, the forgotten children and the misguided public who develop a war language rhetoric that perpetuate war.
And in the end, Chris describes the unbreakable force that he saw keep families together and himself alive during the worst of times. Love. Pure, unconditional love.
Thanks Chris for your powerful words and opening my eyes a little bit more.
~Lo