Michael Ware - a MUST read

[Inuca]

Remember Ware? Great war correspondent on CNN. Disappeared a while back, and if you read this you will know why. It's gut renching, but you owe it to him to have a look http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/27/michael-ware-on-the-things-war-makes-you-see.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Never forgot him

and miss him now.

[hlthe2b]

2. I knew he'd suffered severely from PTSD...

It sounds as though CNN-TIme really did the "corporate" response and just tossed him aside. This piece that he wrote to try to encourage others similarly effected--I hope that it might be start of some healing for him--finding new meaning in life and reason for being.

He was always a tremendous reporter, but I knew listening to him that he had NO means of detaching from the horror. I truly wish him the best.

[Inuca]

7. I agree

He was always very (too?) intense and had a haunted look about him.

[applegrove]

11. +100

[sabrina 1]

3. War is evil and the men who start wars are evil. He was a great correspondent, but it finally got to

him. You could tell that before he disappeared, he did not sound like the confident reporter he had been and then he was gone. There were rumors that he had a breakdown. And it seems they were true. His piece sounds distracted, rambling although clear enough to understand the nightmare he was living.

It also sounds like he cannot see his son for some reason. That is sad. I wish him well, although I would not wish for him to return to a war zone, for his sake.

We are so limited in intelligence really, otherwise we would have figured out how to end the barbaric ritual of war by now. We've made very little progress, even though we keep thinking how 'far we have progressed'. Only in being able to make bigger and more powerful weapons which, considering the human tendency for brutality is not progress at all. Real progress would be to make a decision NOT to invent any more technology whose sole function is to kill other human beings.

Another soul destroyed by the evil of war. I hope he recovers and goes on to have a peaceful and happy life. Seeing 'kids blown to pieces' on a regular basis, having a child of his own, that could drive anyone crazy. We were not meant to endure such horror.

[lunatica]

5. "We" are not the ones making wars

If we're going to be brutally honest I think we should be laying the blame where it belongs. When was the last time a regular citizen of a county decide to declare a war and everyone went? The people who make wars happen are those who benefit from them, and those who get rich or gain more power off of them. A great deal of energy and resources are used to make wars, but practically no energy is used to actually make peace. I don't mean the peace that comes form a lack of war. I mean the peace that comes from putting as much energy and resources into it as is put into making war.

Those of us who are anti-war need to stand up and say so until people realize that the vast majority of us really are truly anti-war.

[sabrina 1]

9. True, but then over 70% of Americans did support the Iraq War

and look how many on this forum alone, support the drone wars. I am not part of that 'we' either, but when something is done in our name, we get the blame.

I definitely agree with you regarding no effort being put into making peace. It's hard work and takes a lot more intelligence to do. It would have to be as profitable as war to even be considered until we can elect people who are smarter and wiser than those we have been electing so far. So long as we the people don't do the work of electing people like that, we are part of the problem imo.

[snappyturtle]

4. I've wondered what happened to him. I so enjoyed his reporting.

What a waste of talent to lose to the insanity of war.
I hope he has much better days ahead.

No one should slowly die by the torment. His corporate
bosses should be covering his health insurance at the
very least. Of course, that might bite into their profit
line!

[SJohnson]

6. Reading this made me think of this Video I seen on Rolling Stone yesterday

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/pictures/death-zone-20110327







Warning this video clip is sick & not easy to watch but it really makes you understand once again why the suicide rates are so high among soldiers

[qb]

8. Haunting. I hope he gets to see his son again soon.

[cachukis]

10. That was intense.

[Timbuk3]

12. One of the few journalists worthy of respect

I could probably list a few more, but it wouldn't be a long list.

When Michael Ware talks, people should listen.

[Bozita]

13. Big time K&R for Michael

[Oilwellian]

14. I hope he pulls through and finds peace

He will be noted in the history books.