image: Akhlas Alalaa Ahmad’s father grieves over her dead body after she was killed in crossfire in the Iraqi town of Samara June 14, 2005. Attacks in various parts of the country left over 20 people dead and over 70 injured today. REUTERS/Amer Salman

Cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, and European Tribune.

image and essay below the fold

from War: Realities and Myths
by Chris Hedges

The vanquished know the essence of war – death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life. All other narratives about war too easily fall prey to the allure and seductiveness of violence, as well as the attraction of the godlike power that comes with the license to kill with impunity.

But the words of the vanquished come later, sometimes long after the war, when grown men and women unpack the suffering they endured as children, what it was like to see their mother or father killed or taken away, or what it was like to lose their homes, their community, their security, and be discarded as human refuse. But by then few listen. The truth about war comes out, but usually too late.

Chris Hedges has been a war reporter for 15 years most recently for the New York Times. He is author of What Every Person Should Know About War, a book that offers a critical lesson in the dangerous realities of war.

Read the complete essay here

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