While I had to try to ignore my revulsion at all the mainstream foundations that sponsor the wonderful Moyers interviews (sleeping with the enemy?), and while I do not dwell within the skin of those who still think any of “our” wars are good and/or necessary, I deeply admire Vietnam Vet Karl Malantes, a PTSD survivor, whose honesty, courage, recognition of multiple perspectives and paradox, not to mention his deep exploration of his own troubled psyche and soul, has resulted in this book: WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR.
One more caveat: at the very end of this riveting, deeply provocative hour — during which, among other startling discussions, Karl Marlantes persuasively compares infantry combat to mysticism, and in another account recognizes his own ego involvement as the source of intense moral ambiguity — he says that, thanks to therapy and his two books, he has now put war behind him. Then, in what was, for me, a loaded little P.S. that placed the entire hour in a larger context, he reveals that he takes medication [I presume, for PTSD]. That’s “part of my life now,” he says. This fact? confession? does makes me pause. I pray that, as individuals and as a society, we can move beyond pharmaceutical “cures” to fully transformational healing.
Thanks to truthdig.com for the pointer.
