This is still Chris Hedges's best book to date, written with a rare incisiveness and authority, burning away in harrowing fashion the veneer on the problem of war. It's a book that repays rereading. ( )

Their are several thinkers these days shaping our thoughts. Many people you meet subscribe to the philosophies of Sam Harris, or Christopher Hitchens. Satisfied with neither of these two, I looked further and ultimatly came across Chris hedges, who, from interviews I have seen with him, seemed like the only person who thoughts matched mine, at least to some extent. Harris and Hitchens seemed to freverent in their blamming of Religion as the worst of the world. Hedges seemes like a good alternative.
Know then the full extent of my meaning when I say I was greatly disapointed by this book.
Well written, easy to follow, powerfull in its imagery, and very unbiased, this book was on its way to a higher score when I noticed what I found to be a large and fatal flaw.
A serious lack of sources to follow.
This is not to say I do not beleive his arguements, I am well informed enough in certain parts of recent history to know that what he says is true. But many people who may read this book will not. You can tell them that during the various Balkan Wars many of soldiers were nothing but local gangsters in uniforms, but frankly, considering the massive amount of disinformation that exisits this day in age, you must at least point an arrow in the right direction. I also understand that some of this evidence does not exists, but some still does. You cannot simply say it as common knowlegde, because it is not. ( )

This book is definitely out of the realm of books I usually read, but I thought I would give it a try because my husband recommended it and hey, you never know. This book is written by a veteran war correspondent. War is bad, let me count the ways. At first I was kind of annoyed reading this because I already know that war is bad. It seemed highly repetitive to me. It's filled with story upon story of greusome things that people do to one another in war times. He used quotes from famous authors to illustrate the fact that war is bad. (I have to wonder though, is Shakespeare really an expert on war?) But the part that I found interesting about this book was how he explained the way the common people are almost always tricked into going to war by their leaders. I have to admit that these parts made me squirm a bit with embarrassment when I thought back to my reactions and feelings after the attacks of September 11th. At any rate, knowledge is like a worm in your brain wiggling around, giving birth to ideas, and with that in mind I'd probably recommend this book because hey, you never know. ( )

Hedges presents some great examples of the incredibly seductive and destructive nature of war. He also provides some very insightful passages on the way the "myth of war," as he puts it, distorts our perspective. I found the basic concepts very persuasive. But unfortunately the work is not well tied together. It often felt disjointed rather than flowing into a comprehensive vision. ( )

http://www.baggas.com/posts/2008/04/1... ( )