Tribe

Junger wrote War, about Afghanistan. But as I found the West Point rugby players’ stories wouldn’t leave me alone, so Junger stayed with those he found in Kunar province.

In Tribe, he considers the ties that bind – notably a focus on the “energy of male conflict and male closeness”. Junger “once asked a combat vet if he’d rather have an enemy or another close friend”. The vet looked at Junger like he was crazy. “‘Oh, an enemy, 100%,’ he said. ‘I’ve already got a lot of friends.’

He thought about it a little longer. ‘Anyway, all my… show more.

Tribe is a must read for any grunt who’s completed a combat tour.

Junger, an imbedded journalist who covered Afghanistan for over a decade, taps into the minds of young veterans in an attempt to understand the homecoming and how vets try to integrate back into society. Modern soldiers lean on tribal instincts while operating inside a group to perform difficult tasks.

But living with those tribal instincts during war can lead to readjustment problems in the civilian world that lead to PTSD, suicide, and substance abuse. Junger dives deep into the subject to try and understand why?  

I adored this book because Junger not only dealt with the disassociation he felt with coming home from a personal perspective but because he – probably more accurately than anyone writing on veterans issues – identified the source of the problem facing America’s veterans.

His book resonated with me as a veteran because he called out the thing that so many of us felt lacking: the lack of purpose. The Iraq War was not a war of necessity – the leaders of our nation fabricated links to 9/11 to justify the invasion and subsequent decade – and it makes justifying… show more.

Despite the hopes and dreams of humanity coming together as some form of a “global community,” there’s no evidence that this has happened in the past or is possible in the future. Junger’s book, Tribe, provides evidence of how humans find comfort in a community that leads to both good and bad outcomes. The book leads to thought-provoking questions about how we can leverage what’s good for communities, or tribes, and mitigate the fallouts to solve global problems.

In my ongoing interest and research into the nuances and issues surrounding war throughout history and the modern age, it wasn’t long before I discovered Sebastian Junger’s work. His award-winning documentaries Restrepo and Korengal are honest, visceral forays into his time embedded with an American infantry unit in Afghanistan. He’s a well-respected journalist with a thoughtful, compassionate eye for the complexities of combat. I chose Tribe for its unique contemplation – supported by anthropological and sociological studies – about the problem many veterans face reintegrating into society after their deployments.

Rather than taking up the common point-of-view that there is… show more.