War is a narcotic

Former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges talked to students at the University of Maryland this week about war and his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He calls war a narcotic,

“I think war is the most powerful narcotic invented by mankind,” Hedges said. “War controls you; you don’t control it… Anyone who spends prolonged periods of time in war carries with them hundreds of images and memories that will haunt them forever… You wake up in the middle of the night, your heart is racing; you can’t go back to sleep. You wake up, and you feel numb… War is a poison… If you don’t understand what that poison is, it can kill you just as surely as the disease itself.” link