War nonfiction hiatus.

If American readers try to plead ignorance about how wars affect the soldiers who fight them, they're big fat liars. I have now officially read so many nonfiction narratives from American soldiers' points of view, or which tell their stories, that I can't read any more. I am done. I don't even know why I kept reading them in the first place; I keep thinking maybe at some point I'll understand our love for all things military in this country. But I never will.

The latest entry in this canon was Sebastian Junger's War. It's been getting a lot of press attention, so I wanted to see it, but I should have quit reading last week when I was in the middle of it and couldn't tell you why I was still reading it. Junger is best known for his runaway bestseller The Perfect Storm, and he brings a lot of his skill in relating telling details, as well as for describing situations in which hope is pretty much lost, to this book. For a year (2007-2008) Junger was embedded with soldiers fighting in one of the most violent regions in Afghanistan, and this book is his account of, as the jacket copy exclaims, "what war actually feels like."

The book is divided into three sections: Fear, Killing, and Love. What I couldn't discern was how Junger was telling his story; anecdotes in the Love section, for example, seemed like they could just as easily have gone in Fear (etc.,) and I couldn't tell if the narrative was purely chronological, or what. Perhaps that was by design, proving how disconcerting war can be to your sense of time and continuity. Perhaps it was my fault, because I started reading the book pretty fast after page 100 or so. Either way, I couldn't keep hold of any sort of story arc.

What Junger does do well is share his personal observations on how the American soldiers withstand and actually come to love their ordeals. These are the tidbits that started to scare hell out of me after a while. Consider:

"War is a lot of things and it's useless to pretend that exciting isn't one of them. It's insanely exciting. The machinery of war and the sound it makes and the urgency of its use and the consequences of almost everything about it are the most excting things anyone engaged in war will ever know. Soldiers discuss that fact with each other and eventually with their chaplains and their shrinks and maybe even their spouses, but the public will never hear about it...In some ways twenty minutes of combat is more life than you could scrape together in a lifetime of doing something else. Combat isn't where you might die---though that does happen--it's where you find out whether you get to keep living. Don't underestimate the power of that revelation. Don't underestimate the things young men will wager in order to play that game one more time." (p. 144-145.)

"It's a stressful way to live but once it's blown out your levels almost everything else looks boring. O'Byrne knows himself: when he gets bored he starts drinking and getting into fights, and then it's only a matter of time until he's back in the system. If that's the case, he might as well stay in the system--a better one--and actually move upward...We are at one of the most exposed outposts in the entire U.S. military, and he's crawling out of his skin because there hasn't been a good firefight in a week. How do you bring a guy like that back into the world?" (p. 233.)

Cripes. This book saddened me like few have. Can't humans find larger meaning in anything except killing each other? Perhaps this book was just a little too much from the soldiers' point of view for me. If you'd like to read something on the subject, but not this book, I would highly recommend Theodore Nadelson's Trained to Kill: Soldiers at War, which was also depressing, but not quite as testosterone-soaked.

Comments

[Amy]

Hmm I had read a few blurbs on this and it sounded interesting, but after this review I'm less sure. It does sound awful testosterone-soaked doesn't it... I'm still going to try to pick it up at some point, but I have to say it has moved down on my wish list. And Trained to Kill has moved up :)

[Citizen Reader]

Well, Amy, if you can stand it, I still think it's a good book to read. It is so hard for me to imagine the testosterone-soaked impressions I quoted, that it is good for me to read them and try and remember how some soldiers experience war. "Trained to Kill" is much more scholarly (and historical), while this one is much more emotional, so perhaps they should be read together.

[Rachael]

It's odd, but I've seen a few of Junger's interviews for this book and the movie that he did (Restrepo), and he looks a little...PTSD. It's a little disturbing to hear, and I keep hoping I'm just reading a little too much into it.

I've got the book out now, but haven't read more than the first few paragraphs. Definitely evocative, but I don't know if I can read another one of these without it changing MY personality a bit.

[Citizen Reader]

Rachael,
Sadly, I don't think you're imagining it. I don't think you can even just report on war for as long as he has and not be a little affected. At one point he references the sounds of a particular weapon/incoming fire as reminding him of teakettles and subway brakes, when then freaked him out when he heard them outside of combat. I think he's definitely been affected. Also creepy, also sad.

I don't know that it's changed my personality, but it has made me give up all the more. If war's such a big thrill what can we offer any of the soldiers coming back? What could we offer to keep them here? How will we ever hope to stop it, if this is just such an ingrained human need and desire? Add the thrill to people's need to defend their territory, people, and property, and I just don't see how any of this stuff can ever end.

Oh my. Yup, I definitely can't read any more of these.

[Tripp]

I will be reading this one shortly, as I just picked it up at the library.

On Junger, I hear he bonds with his subjects. Apparently he was quite broken up by his experience researching and writing the Perfect Storm, so I am not surprised this one worked him over as well.

[Venta]

This title is on my long list of to reads, but I wanted to tell you that I read "The Deserter's Tale" over Memorial Day weekend. I was going to pair it with "On Call in Hell," but I couldn't do two war memoirs back to back. Wow. Not only was the book interesting (thanks for the recommendation, C.R.), but it was also fascinating to hear people's reactions the book. Few people had any sympathy for Joshua Key who deserted the army after the our country's first seven months in Iraq. When I told people that he spent most nights ransacking the homes of civilians, they didn't even listen. And to tell you the truth, I had trouble at first, too. Key never rationalizes what he did except to say that what he and the other soldiers did in Iraq was morally wrong - that they were violating the human rights of civilians during war. Then I remembered that his experiences were before Abu Ghraib, and the army provides few opportunities for soldiers to question the morals and ethics of their duties. Add in the pro-war fervor, and Key and men & women like him were screwed.

Have you read "On Call in Head: A Doctor's Iraq War Story"?

[Citizen Reader]

Oh, Venta,
I'm so glad you read it. Whenever I mention it no one's ever heard of it, which is a crying shame. But the reactions to it make me very angry--how could people not believe he was ransacking homes? Where to people think insurgents hide, and how do they think you have to find them? Made sense to me. I guess I kind of figured that was continuously going on. What really shocked me about this book was how our armed services's recruiters take advantage of people's poverty by showing up at their trailer doors when boys turn 16 (they start early) and offering them food and basic health care. Disgusting.

Sadly, I wish I could believe that after Abu Ghraib ordinary soldiers had more of a say and a voice, but I'm pretty sure they don't. Don't ask don't tell seems to be the law of the military to me, and there's a reason things like My Lai and Abu Ghraib keep happening.

I have not read "On Call in Hell," but will add it to my long list. It will have to wait just a bit, for reasons stated earlier. But I'll get to it and let you know, I promise!

[Rick]

I just finished reading Mrs. Adams in Winter. A part of the story is the fear people feel when Napoleonic-era soldiers raid the villages to take everything of value, from food to furniture. Mrs. Adams gets into a dangerous situation herself and is rescued by an officer who keeps soldiers from the "Grand Army" from abusing her. The warping of soldiers and the brutalization of civilians has always been a part of war. Efforts to stop bullying always seem to fail. Really, there is no good future in war.