What Every Person Should Know About War - Chris Hedges

What Every Person Should Know About War - Chris Hedges, Free Press/Simon & Schuster, Inc. (2003) 175pp.

Published at a time when the Bush propaganda machine was in high gear, trying to whip up a public frenzy upon which to launch a war of aggression against Iraq, it is clear that Chris Hedges’ intent is to take a long pin to the heady emotions of a war fever balloon. The prose is matter of fact and hammers the reader with fact after disturbing fact. Here are a few examples: “There are 37,401 foreign nationals serving in the U.S. military.”(p.21) “Military rations were engineered to keep you from needing to defecate more often than once every three days.”(p.30) “Anti-personnel mines are designed to severely injure, not kill, because of the increased burden caring for injured personnel puts on a unit.”(p.46-47) Only 2% of soldiers are considered “natural killers” and they account for 50% of killing in combat. “20 to 25% of all officers killed in Vietnam were killed by enlisted men.”(p.85) “Friendly fire” possibly attributed to 15% of all American casualties in the twentieth century. “75% of all combat vehicles lost in the Gulf War were destroyed by friendly fire.”(p.86) “More Vietnam veterans have committed suicide since the war than were killed during it.”(p.90)

Hedges hammers away with fact after benumbing fact, and he has the bibliography and notation to back up his statistics and to prove that he’s not administering the blows for crude shock value alone. He seems to be of the mind that if it is war that the American public genuinely seeks, then he, as a seasoned, former war correspondent, feels compelled that it is his duty to deliver to the people what they seek and want. Pull no punches and maybe the chickenhawks in Washington might be awaken by a national revulsion to their policies of aggressive war. The sad fact is, that not enough people will read this important work, a follow-up to War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, which likely reached a wider audience. What Every Person Should Know About War, reads more like a survival manual for those about to enter a combat zone (a purpose the writer admittedly concedes to in the beginning of the book). Hedges’ attitude seems to be, you want war, you got it, and this is what it is – no gloss, no glamour, just the naked brutal reality. It’s too bad that in some miraculous way, this book couldn’t be made mandatory reading for the chickenhawk neo-conservative set, though they are so steeped in their own stew of self-reinforcing fascistic miasma, that it’s doubtful that even this would make a difference. Whatever the case, Hedges has done his part in writing a potent work, so take from it what you will reader and let the chips fall where they may.