Combat is a piece of war. But war is a totalizing, uncivilized experience.

News reports don't look at the land that existed before a war and the land that exists after a war. Reporting on war is a snapshot in time.

I think if we understand better the impact of war on women and children, we might be more careful about the wars we start.

Having traveled to parts of the world where war has done its usual nasty work on people's lives, I have come to develop a particular hatred for the shape, the look, the sound of the AK-47.

When men talk about war, the stories and terminology vary - it's this battle, these weapons, this terrain. But no matter where you go in the world, women use the same language to speak of war. They speak of fire, they speak of death, and they speak of starvation.

The problem is that it's hard to aim a rifle when your heart is pounding, which points to an irony of modern combat: it does extraordinarily violent things to the human body but requires almost dead calm to execute well.