I am watching CSPAN2’s book TV where a panel is discussing the myth of warfare. On the panel we have Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead, and Chris Hedges, combat correspondent and author of War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. Hedges pointed out that most of the coverage of the accounts of the battles in Iraq describe the effectiveness of the weapons: they are precise, they are accurate, they are effective and thus by extension, so is the empire that produces them. Thus the coverage builds the success of the nation, it is an autocatalytic cycle that expands Nationalist Sentiment.