Former war correspondent Chris Hedges and author Anthony Swofford described the pornographic appeal of war and the harrowing difficulties in readjusting to civilian life in a well-attended talk at Kresge Auditorium yesterday.

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Alvin Chow

New York Times war correspondent and author Chris Hedges talks about his twenty-year reporting experience while ex-Marine and author Anthony Swofford and moderator Prof. David Spiegel look on.

The public discussion, part of the Aurora Forum program, featured Hedges, a former New York Times reporter and author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, and Swofford, author of the best-selling war memoir Jarhead. The dialogue, entitled “The Truth of War,” was moderated by School of Medicine Prof. David Spiegel. It touched mainly on the horrors of war but also explored its “sexy” side.

“War is probably the most powerful narcotic created by mankind,” Hedges said. “It’s so easy to hate war but still be caught up and addicted to the experience, to the ‘war high.’”

“It creates almost a temporary psychosis,” Swofford agreed. “It’s sexy, this nearly sexual charge that comes about in combat, the glory of dying for your country. Growing up in the ‘80s, I used to get it from watching war films, that there was something exciting, pornographic about combat — a feeling which is obliterated about 30 seconds into the first conflict.”

Asked about how one dealt with feelings of helplessness during fighting, Hedges said that it was a combination of sheer terror in the moment and an unbeatable high afterwards.

“I remember lying in the dirt praying — and I never pray — telling God that if he saved me I would never do it again. And then a few hours later, I was sitting in a bar in San Salvador, and it’s a big, cosmic joke.”

Hedges and Swofford testified to the struggles of readjusting to society and engaging in normal relationships after being in combat.

“I remember seeing a buddy of mine a few years after the Gulf War, and he was a psychological wreck,” Swofford recalled. “He was still wearing his fatigues, drinking a lot. I was drinking a lot too — it dulled the pain, drinking, but my friend was particularly unable to live or adjust.”

“Upon my return, I was pretty much a mess,” Hedges agreed.

In response to a question about whether there were any just wars, Hedges argued that some wars were inevitable but none were just. He alluded to the decision by families in Sarajevo to take up arms in defense of their families during the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s.

“But that doesn’t protect you from the poisonous effects of war, and once somebody employs violence they become tainted, corrupted, perverted by it,” he said.

Questioned about the possibility of war with Iran, Hedges said, “I think the only option left is, in Thoreau’s words, individual revolt. So if we go to war with Iran, I won’t pay my taxes anymore.”

Hedges’ comment was met with applause, but afterwards, audience response to the forum was mixed.

Josh Abend, a Stanford alum from the class of 1950 and a World War II veteran, said that he enjoyed how the conference brought everyone together, but that it never came to a clear resolution.

“They were undertaking a tricky, deep subject, and they just didn’t have enough horsepower to do it,” he said. “There was nothing definitive. They bit off a little bit, but what did they ultimately teach our younger people, people of your generation? That war is bad?”

The best summary of the night’s talk might have come from Hedges, in response to a question about whether only people who have been to war should be allowed to declare war. Swofford and Hedges agreed on the potential dangers of such a plan, including the long recovery time that any engagement in combat requires.

“It’s a long process in the recovery of your own humanity,” Hedges said.