Hedges’ is the author of the 2002 best seller, War is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, which is an examination of what war does to individuals and societies. Hedges resigned shortly thereafter and became a senior fellow at the Nation Institute. The reprimand condemned his remarks as undermining the paper’s impartiality. The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial which denounced his anti-war stance and the The New York Times issued a formal reprimand, forbidding Hedges to speak about the war.
This event made national news and he became a lightning rod not only for right wing pundits and commentators, but also mainstream newspapers. He was escorted off campus by security officials before the diplomas were awarded. Two young men rushed the stage to try to prevent him from speaking and Hedges had to cut short his address. He told the graduating class “…we are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige, power and security.” He went on to say that “This is a war of liberation in Iraq, but it is a war of liberation by Iraqis from American occupation.” As he spoke, several hundred members of the audience began jeering and booing. In 2003, shortly after the war in Iraq began, Hedges was asked to give the commencement address at Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois. That same year he won an Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. He was an early and outspoken critic of the US plan to invade and occupy Iraq and called the press coverage at the time “shameful cheerleading.” In 2002, he was part of a team of reporters for The New York Times who won a Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California.
He graduated from Colgate University with a BA in English Literature and went on to receive a Master of Divinity from Harvard. Chris Hedges, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was born on Septemin St.
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