A deeply personal and introspective account of the authors own experiences combined with everything he has learned regarding war and violence since his tour in Vietnam. There are some similarities with "On Killing", but the author painfully illustrates the personal side beyond statistics and studies.The author central thesis is focused on how society and the individual can come to terms with the War God Mars. The psychological and spiritual initiation into his realm exacts a high cost and some are never fully able to return. As we "normalize" violence through constant media steams and high-powered technological weapons the need for dealing with the human side become ever more imperative if we are going to keep the souls of those who do the fighting in tact. The author reasons that initiation and purification rituals would go a long way towards helping those who enter into the realm of the God of War. This is necessary because the individual needs to keep separate their personal life from the battlefield. Part of PTSD is the individual bringing the "battlefield" home causing the soldier to suffer while attempting to transition back to normal life. A purification or cleansing ritual would instead assist them in emotionally and spiritually letting the war go. This could be a simple as a decompression time with their unit on the trip home to something as elaborate as an actual religious ritual cleansing.We have become technologically very sophisticated at fighting war but still failing to understand the basic human side of it on the individual. This should be required reading for those considering military service an amazing book myself having an interest in the military both as a lover of history and due in part to my family's many service members and as a result my own considerations of joining. the book will make you think it will take you deep into what it means to go to war you can't read this and come away unscathed in some way. Highly recommend it
Slow slow slow. This book reads like a therapy session and gets preachy in too many places.
—heytheredayana
Must read for our military, and those civilians entrusted with oversight.
—Sarah
Very good book.Graphic and disturbing, but very good.
—Sammy
