HEDGES REFLECTS
As the guerilla attacks on Allied troops in Iraq mount, Chris Hedges is grim in his assessment. "Everything that I have said about Iraq has been borne out," he said. "this slow bleeding dry of British and American soldiers."

Despite his experiences, Hedges is not a pacifist and doesn't see his book as an anti-war tome. He believes in the possibility of just wars, thinking that the first Gulf War was necessary. He also supports peacekeeping efforts and attempts to stop genocide. "I supported interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo," he said. "The lesson of the Holocaust is that when you have the opportunity to stop genocide and you don't, you are culpable. We are culpable for what happened in Rwanda."

After seeing carnage spanning two decades, Hedges has his own demons and nightmares to deal with. "I think of it as a lifelong crucible," Hedges said. "You bear it. As we get older, it gets harder to bear. I deal with it by taking the tragedy and horror that I witnessed and writing about it. It gives it a sense of purpose that makes it easier to cope with."