War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (25 page)

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———.
Moral Man and Immoral Society
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———.
The Nature and Destiny of Man Vol. I and II
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Orwell, George.
Homage to Catalonia
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———.
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Owen, Wilfred.
Selected Poems
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Pyle, Ernie.
Ernie's War
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986.

Remarque, Erich Maria.
All Quiet on the Western Front
. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1958.

Roth, Joseph.
Hotel Savoy
. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 1986.

———.
The Radetzky March
. London: Penguin, 1974.

Shakespeare, William.
The Riverside Shakespeare
, edited by G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.

Silkin, Jon (ed.).
The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
. London: Penguin, 1996.

Sudetic, Chuck.
Blood and Vengeance
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Thompson, Mark.
A Paper House
. London: Vintage, 1992.

Thucydides.
A Comprehensive Guide to The Peloponnesian War
, edited by Robert B. Strassler. New York: Touchstone, 1998.

Todorov, Tzvetan.
Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in the Concentration Camps
. New York: Metropolitan/Owl Books, 1996.

Wiesel, Elie.
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Zimmerman, Warren.
Origins of a Catastrophe
. New York: Times Books, 1996.

IT HAS BEEN NEARLY TWENTY YEARS SINCE I GRADUATED
from Harvard Divinity School and left Cambridge to cover the war in El Salvador. This book is not only the result of my work in various war zones, but is a product of the education I received, especially in English literature and Christian theology, at Colgate University and Harvard University. I owe much of what I am to great professors—Coleman Brown, Margaret Maurer, Krister Stendhal, G. Blakemore Evans, W. Jackson Bate, Robert Coles, and Robert Pinsky. They taught me how to read and write and most importantly how to think critically. I have carried their wisdom, their love of books, and their moral probity with me. I have tried to live a life by the standards they set.

Peter Osnos, the publisher of PublicAffairs, conceived of the book idea and pushed me to make it work. He then went on to publish it. He turned me over to his executive editor, Paul Golob, whose talent and good humor carried me through. It is a much better book for Paul's willingness to read and reread with such care and intelligence. David Patterson at PublicAffairs ironed out all the kinks and made the logistics work. Lisa Bankoff of International Creative Management shepherded me through the world of book publishing with grace and wisdom.

My editors at
The New York Times
, Jon Landman, Ann Cronin, Christine Kay, and Bill Goss are not only immensely
talented but blessed with infinite patience. Moreover, they stand up for the reporters who work for them. I want to thank colleagues and editors at
The New York Times
over the years, including Bernie Gwertzman, whose decency and equanimity made him truly loved, Andy Rosenthal, Bill Keller, Chris Wren, Ethan Bronner, Eric Eckholm, Helen Verongos, Marie Courtney, Cynthia Latimer-Ortiz, Kathy Rose, Steve Weisman, Tom Feyer, Eric Schmitt, Steve Kinzer, Jeanne Moore, Ed Marks, Chris Drew, and Susan Sachs. The editors at
Harper's
magazine, in particular John R. MacArthur, Lewis H. Lapham, and Ben Metcalf, keep alive the marriage between great writing and great thought and somehow make my pieces sing. I would also like to thank the editors I work with at
Foreign Affairs
, especially James F. Hoge Jr. and Celia Whitaker, along with Fareed Zakaria, now with
Newsweek
. Also, my colleagues at New York University, especially William and Judy Serrin, Carol Sternhell, Michael and Beth Norman and Cathleen Dullahan, all keep alive great journalism traditions. Eva Sanchez, Puja Vaswani, and Caroline Bingham worked tirelessly as researchers. They, and the staff at the New York University library, were vital. My NYU library privileges are among my most precious possessions.

Coleman Brown, Peter Meineck, Kim Parham, Jack Wheeler, who lent his considerable intellect as well as his experience as a professional soldier, Linda McNell, and Claudia Wassmann worked on the manuscript and made many important changes and corrections. They gave it greater clarity and depth. I owe a huge debt to the colleagues I worked with over the years—especially Lajla Veselica and Wade Goddard in Croatia and Ivana Sekularac in Serbia; these three kept me balanced and were able, when I most
needed it, to make me laugh at myself. Boba Lizdek in Sarajevo and now Paris, Shukrije Gashi, my translator in Kosovo who was later killed by the Serbs, Alija Dedajic, whose wits saved both our lives during the war in Bosnia more than once, Jadranka Milanović, the late Miladin Zivotić, and Serif Turgut were priceless companions. Tom Gjelten and Neal Conan at National Public Radio, Kanan Makiya, Tony Horwitz and Geraldine Brooks, Jim Landers, Michael Ignatieff, Iliriana Bajo, Ivo Banac, Malika Berak—who introduced me to two of my favorite writers, Marcel Proust and Louis-Ferdinand Céline—Rina Castelnuovo, Omar Othman, Gamal Mohei al-Din, Michael Georgy, Carlos Ramos, Emma Daley, Chuck Sudetic, Max Marcus, Kit Roane, Hani Sabra, Edward Said, and Alan Chin all contributed to my understanding and became close friends. Kurt Schork and Miguel Gil Morano, two brave and fine war correspondents, who were killed in May 2000 in an ambush in Sierra Leone, will remain with me always. I want to also thank Michael and Yora Kisch, Douglas and Ellen Davidson, Robert Kaplan, Sören and Charlotte Liborius, Alina Margolis, Daniel Reed, Walter and Ann Pincus, Ward Pincus and Iobel Andemicael, Christine Hauser, Ravi Sidhu, David and Yael Amir, Patricia Diermeier, Elise Colette, and the great and very funny political cartoonist Joe Sacco.

I spent the academic year 1998–1999 at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow thanks to generosity of Joe Lelyveld and
The New York Times
. During the year I developed a close friendship with the curator, Bill Kovach, an inspirational man and one of the finest journalists I have ever known. Bill, along with Julie Felt, Chris Marquis, Mary and Lawrence Walsh, Kathy Coleman, Richard Thomas, Frank and Margo Lindsey,
Zeph Stewart, James and Sheba Freedman, Lily Galily, and Susan Reed, made that year one of the richest of my life.

I owe more than I can repay to Josyane Séchaud, who endured the long absences, the danger, and frequent uncertainty from El Salvador to Kosovo, with Swiss stoicism and unwavering understanding and support. My mother, Teddy Hedges, a professor of English, imparted to me a love of books and writing. She was the first one to publish my work, in a booklet she typed and bound when I was a child. My aunt and uncle, Miriam and Ellsworth Blair, make our retreats to Maine possible and somehow put up with my wildnesss. But my greatest thanks go to Thomas and Noëlle, who remind me every day that my chief role, and the one I value most, is as a father. I hope they never do what I did.

Achilles,
12
,
29
,
159

Adamović, Marko,
129

Adams, James Luther,
147

Aeneas,
168

The Aeneid
(Virgil),
168
,
182
,
184

Afghanistan,
105

casualties of war in,
13

language of war and,
8

myth of war and,
22
,
23

Afghans,
9

Africa,
10

African National Congress,
144

Ahangaron, Kazem,
177
,
178

Ahmedspahić, Jasna,
113

Al-Adan Hospital,
145

al-Amal Hospital,
97

Alfonsin, Raul,
135

Algeria,
2
,
133

casualties of war in,
13

killing of children in,
94

willingness to kill and,
88

All Quiet on the Western Front
(Remarque),
87

al-Sabah, Saud Nasir,
145

Amazons,
159

America. See
United States

American Council of Trustees and Alumni,
72

Amin, Jamal Aziz,
138–39

Ammouna, Fahdi Abu,
97

Andrić, Ivo,
64
,
112
,
122

Angola

casualties of war in,
13

civil war in,
24–25
,
101–102

Ann, Lady,
168

Another Day of Life
(Kapušciński),
101

Antony and Cleopatra
(Shakespeare),
90
,
168

Aphrodite,
100

apocalypse, redemption through,
85

Arab-Israeli war (1973),
164

Arafat, Yasir,
24

Arendt, Hannah,
15
,
150
,
151

Ares,
100

Argentina,
47
,
141

Dirty War and,
43–45
,
134

nationalism and,
59–60

rape camps in,
104

torture in,
134–135

willingness to kill and,
88

Aristotle,
161

Arkan,
27
,
103

Armenians, genocide of,
122–125

Arnedt, Hannah,
106

art, significance in wartime,
62–63

Asadourian, Hagob H.,
122–125

Asadourian, John,
123–125

Athens,
183

Auden, W. H.,
90

Augustan age,
26

Austerlitz,
31

Australia,
6

Ayala, Edilberto,
164

Ayios Demetrios Church,
66

Badzić, Murdija,
119–120

Bakovik,Burka,
110
,
111

Baldizón, Alvaro José,
36

Balkans,
13
,
66
,
161

culture destruction and,
77

myth of war and,
21
,
26
,
31–32

rape camps in,
104

Banja Luka,
107
,
163

Bartov, Omer,
86
,
92

Basovizza,
132

Basra, Shiite uprising in,
89–90

BBC,
59

Belgrade,
103

Belgrade Circle,
55

Belgrade University,
55

Berdichec,
135

Bible,
27

Bildt, Carl,
79

bin Laden, Osama,
8

Bisbua, casualties of war in,
13

Blood,
134

Blood and Vengeance
(Sudetic),
166

B'nai B'rith,
70

Bosanski Novi,
104

Bosnian War

aftermath of,
117–120

attraction of war and,
6–7

cause of,
149–156

Communist hierarchy in,
4

culture and,
62–63
,
69–73
,
76–80

displacement and,
106–112

end of,
151–153

killing in,
9
,
86–87
,
88

memory recovery and,
128–130

myth of war and,
20–21
,
25
,
26

nationalism and,
14–15
,
48–58

Serbian warrior and,
20

sex and,
104–106

U.S. intervention in,
16
,
20

UN and,
1
,
16
,
32
,
104

war as drug and,
163–164

Brandt, Willy,
57

Brazil,
141

Brckić, Bosko,
169

The Bridge on the Drina
(Andrić),
112