War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

A veteran New York Times war correspondent's complex, moving, and thought-provoking reflection on how life is lived most intensely in times of war.

General George S. Patton famously said, "Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, I do love it so!" Though Patton was a notoriously single-minded general, it is nonetheless a sad fact that war gives meaning to many lives, a fact with which we have become familiar now that America is once again engaged …