What Every Person Should Know About War

by Chris Hedges

Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself.

Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies.
• What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war?
• What does it feel like to get shot?
• What do artillery shells do to you?
• What is the most painful way to get wounded?
• Will I be afraid?
• What could happen to me in a nuclear attack?
• What does it feel like to kill someone?
• Can I withstand torture?
• What are the long-term consequences of combat stress?
• What will happen to my body after I die?

This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.

Genres: Nonfiction, War, Politics, Military Fiction, History, Reference, Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies.

Hedges is known as the best-selling author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Chris Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City.

Reviews

[David Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly informative book on the reality of war and its effects on people. The book is a quick read and incredibly interesting, with the text in a question-and-answer format. I found the arc of chapters clever as well, following the progression of a person from joining the military to questions of combat, wounds and injuries, dying, and life after the war.

The sections which caught my attention was how people adapt to combat. The vast majority of people do not like to kill other people. It's difficult. Media portrayals of combat show a sanitized reality of death and destruction, with whole bodies and peaceful expressions of death, but the truth is that bodies can be mutilated, disfigured, or burned, and soldiers can remain alive after being wounded.

Soldiers must be conditioned to kill. There's a quip from Lt. Col Grossman, who also wrote the book Killology, that "It is not too far off the mark to observe that there's something about continuous, inescapable combat which will drive 98 percent of all men insane, and the other two percent were crazy when they got there." The remaining two percent had aggressive psychopathic personalities which allows them to not be affected by the stresses of combat. That statistic reminds me of Daniel Goleman (who wrote 'Emotional Intelligence') that one percent of all people have a sociopathic personality who lack empathy for others and only think of themselves. Perhaps there is a correlation? For typical soldiers however, experiencing traumatic events in war can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (around fifty percent for WWII and Vietnam vets, and twenty percent for Gulf War I vets) which has real consequences on health and family.

Overall, the costs of war are more than material but human as well. Asking citizen-soldiers to go to war and experience death and destruction is no light task and re-affirms the responsibility of the executive branch to use their power wisely.

"War, the blood-swollen god, asks us to sacrifice our young. Beware of that sacrifice. Fear it."

[Nara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tiny book, but brilliant. Halfway through I was wishing I had the funding to buy thousands of copies and pass them out at high schools to counter military recruitment. Totally unbiased, and written in a simple Q & A format, this is a quietly damning picture of some of the realities of war, based on strong research, much of it done by the military themselves. My only caveat is that much of it is pretty specific to American military situations. The sections on wounds and weapons made me want to be sick. Who the hell develops this shit? Have they no conscience?

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an overt anti-war polemic, rather a straightforward presentation of facts whose cumulative effect is (not surprisingly) disturbing. Certainly (in case you didn't already know) war should not be undertaken lightly and the people who can persuaded to go should be getting much better taken care of when they return.

[Pedro Veloso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short read on the expectations and consequences of War written by a journalist who has covered pretty much every single modern conflict. The book seems more directed for those who will be fighting it, and it's a good reminder of the atrocities and immense societal cost that comes from being at war.

[Dr. Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and to the point.

Presented in question and answer form this title is geared towards an individual contemplating or just beginning military service.

I wish I had read it when I was younger during my early years in the service.

It is a relatively quick read, given the format, but that does not account for the reflection that is involved in contemplating the responses provided.

The title is currently a bit dated (2003) and there have been many changes in the military, many of them unfortunately not for the better.

I feel sorry for the troops serving today, under the current mismanaged administration and their lack of respect for the military and its veterans.

Recommended with the foregoing reservations

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Hedges answers questions about what it's like to be in the military in a Q&A format. In the introduction, he explains that most people who enlist have a false idea of what military life is like, that their conception about war has been shaped by movies and stories that glorify it. He never states that he thinks war is evil or that it's "never the answer," but he makes it clear--and I agree--that potential enlistees should know exactly what they're getting into when they sign up to go to war, and the public, when deciding whether or not to support the decision to go to war, should know what war does to people.

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents questions that potential military recruits might ask and the answers to those questions. The topics discussed cover everything from military life, combat, injuries, death, and returning home. The questions are answered in a straight, no-nonsense way. It's an interesting read even if you aren't contemplating a military career. After having read this book, I felt that I could better understand what soldiers are going through. This book is more than 10 years old, so there are a few points that might be out-of-date, such as the role of women in the military.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, easy read, this book explores in question-and-answer format what a soldier might experience upon enlistment, during and after war, including what happens if the soldier is injured or dies. It is objective, well-documented, and has an extensive bibliography. Indeed, it truly is What Every Person Should Know About War.

[James Byron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stupidity of war hit me up the side of my head. Chris Hedges transcends the emotional tripe used to propel the troops "over the top" and into the gun sights, and tells a practical story of death, pain, destruction and despair.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as with his other book, I put this under religion personal but this time because I did not want to add another shelf. This book is so dryly impersonal that it is devastating. And it is so complete with hundreds of thoughts that coalesce into terror.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a guide for the average person who knows nothing about conflict. Specifically, it is written for people in the military who are about to be deployed to a combat zone. For that it may be useful, but it is covering a large amount of ground thinly.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

No rhetoric or dogma - just the cruel, terrifying facts about war. Everyone really does need to read this.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

"NO SUGAR-COATING HERE"

‘What Every Person Should Know About War’ sure does take the romanticism out of war. It is a 125-page straight-forward explanation and not some anti-or-pro-war rant. It is set up in a question-and-answer format. Mr. Hedges, who had over twenty years experience as a war correspondent and was even taken hostage during one assignment, took pains to avoid rhetoric and minimized the use of adjectives. The book was published in 2003, so some of the answers are outdated. However, the little book is chockfull of interesting information. Its objective was to supply the reader with solid material that dispels fictions, vague generalizations and deliberate propaganda.

Mr. Hedges’s book covers the makeup of each U.S. military branch, its expenditures, weaponry, soldier demographics, boot camp, and the life of military personnel as well as their spouses and kids. It then moves on to the nitty-gritty involving combat and the myriad of ways that humans have come up with killing, maiming, or torturing the enemy. Mercy, we are a demented species. ‘What Every Person Should Know About War’ even answers questions such as poop procedures and do soldiers who witness battle become more religious? It concludes with what soldiers will experience when returning home from war. The author frequently references J. Glenn Gray’s excellent ‘The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle’ and I highly recommend it. I viewed reading both Mr. Hedges’s and Mr. Gray’s books as worthy companions.

While the military does use various techniques to desensitize and shape soldiers into killing machines, nothing, including war reenactments and video games, is an adequate substitute for the experiences of actual combat. ‘What Every Person Should Know About War’ gives the reader solid information. Everybody should spend a few hours reading the thing to get a clear-eyed idea of war, especially if you get a patriotic stiffy romanticizing it. War isn’t going away. We need a strong military and should thank our ever-lovin’ red, white, and blue jockey shorts that some citizens are willing to become soldiers. Mr. Hedges’s did a great public service by writing this no-nonsense book.

[Alifiyah Shabbir · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to know about the author when I first stumbled upon his YouTube channel. Chris Hedges has worked as a war reporter for close to two decades for The New York Times, sometimes going beyond the call of duty in reporting war and strife across the countries of the world.

He has had his own share of atrocities committed during wars and emphatically warns us in the introduction of the book thus: "I struggle with the demons all who have been to war must bear. There are days when these burdens seem more than I can handle."

The book is entirely in a question-answer format. The questions all pertaining to war are mostly general in nature but the answers to them can range from being objective to traumatic.

The chapter relating to torture during the war, death and the fate of the corpse is grim and I must confess that it was impossible for me to go beyond a couple of questions without closing the book and staring blankly at the wall.

The book talks about the evolution of weapons over the years, imprisonment, torture, rape as a tool, actual dying, and its aftereffect in gory detail. It describes the effect of war on the people, their bodies, their minds and on their souls; not just the victims of the war but also those that go on such combats. PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a reality.

Here is a passage from the book:

"We ennoble war. We turn it into entertainment. And in all this, we forget what war is all about; what it does to those who wage it and those who suffer from it. We ask those in the military and their families to make sacrifices that color the rest of their lives. Those who hate war the most, I have often found, are veterans who knew it."

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw an excellent Youtube video where the author spoke about the death of the Left or Liberalism and its descent into Fascism. His bio introduced him as a war correspondent who was on the ground for most of the conflicts (post WWII) during my lifetime. I bought the book thinking that he would be telling some first-hand experiences from war zones. THIS IS NOT WHAT THIS BOOK IS. This book was a collaboration between the author and some university and think tank types. The entire book is a set of questions and answers. The book is full of statistics such as: "How likely you are to be wounded in battle? What kinds of wounds are the most fatal? If you are captured how will you be tortured and what methods of torture are likely to be used." This book is ideally what a parent should give a young man who thinks he wants to join the military. It is a sobering take on the reality of war. Just the facts. No emotion. Few adjectives and adverbs. Very dry. For the majority of people who do not enlist in military service and do not see combat, it is an eye-opener. If you agree with the power elites who control the politicians who send our citizens off to fight modern wars of empire and conquest, you can disabuse yourself of the nobility and "rightness" of going to war. War is hell.

[Adam Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Altogether, it was a good, short, informative read. It is about 120 pages and is organized in a question-and-answer format, chronologically ordered from the perspective of a soldier (roughly: enlistment -> combat -> capture -> death -> survival, with many details in between).

Some of it was about what I expected, some of it was better skimmed unless you have reason to read it (military burial practices), some of it seemed slightly outdated (PTSD), and there were certain sections that could have been expanded upon (rape in wartime, readjustment to civilian life, PTSD, and torture).

I think it would have benefitted from more depth in places, but that would defeat its purpose as a pamphlet for enlistees, so I understand why it is shallow. Nonetheless, I feel that more first-hand accounts would have added to the book. I found that they were the most memorable sections.

From a Vietnam veteran:

"I didn't really speak the language. I could understand a few phrases, though. One day during a firefight, for the first time in my life, I heard the cries of the Vietnamese wounded, and I understood them. When someone gets wounded, they call out for their mothers, their wives, their girlfriends. There I was listening to the VC cry for the same things."

[Gregory Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up off a stoop a few days ago. As the adult child of a disabled Vietnam veteran with PTSD, I found this little book to be very compelling. My father’s lack of generosity in sharing his personal wartime narrative (or peacetime, for that matter) has always left me little in the way of understanding him or his dysfunctional behavior. Or my own. This book, written in a question-and-answer format, presents only the raw, often disturbing, facts of most facets of historic and modern warfare up to its publication in 2003. It’s like a manual. There is almost no viewpoint or emotionality expressed anywhere in its pages. Just a grave, respectful seriousness. I feel like I understand certain things about my life a little better having read it. If you or someone in your family is joining the military, you should probably read this.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd little book. The whole, brief, thing is in a short-form question/answer format. It informs the reader about the basic facts of war and soldiering. It was somewhat informative, but much of it I already knew from the news and other reading. It would be a good quick reference for someone considering going into the military. I guess it could also be seen as a weird, minimalist anti-war advocacy.

[César · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dry, matter-of-fact book about enlisting in the military, being there, and fighting in a war. Depending on your personal views about the military, it may feel either prowar, or antiwar, or treading a middle ground.

Caveat Lector: Due to its age (it was released on 2003), it may be a bit dated in some parts. Keep that in mind.

[Clem Paulsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, practical, and terrifying text on how war is waged -- soldiers found, how it's paid for, what happens to bodies -- and plenty more.

For any taxpayer, a must-read before being subject to the horrors of an M-16, for example.

Very recommended, regardless of your politics or party.

[Robert Devine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pamphlet of facts; useful introductory resource on the topic

[Nate Jordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for every potential military recruit.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very practical read for those considering being in a combat military situation.

[Anlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, just dated to the time it was written. Would be very interested in an updated version reflecting new era warfare dynamics, etc.

[JJallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read for someone interested in joining the military

[Deepto Chakraborty · Rating 4 out of 5]

eveyone must read this book to know about American Military System

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Some of this information is now dated/ incorrect simply due to when it was published.
Perhaps because I'm from a military family...I don't know but I found this book lacking.

[Brendan]

I read most of this a while ago and forgot

[John Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Hedges' War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning quite a while ago, and been meaning to get to this one since. A powerful read, although a little dated at this point.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering and informative.