Traditional Albanian Society Was Based On A

When You're Scared, You're Still Hanging On To Life. When You're Ready To Die, You Let It Go. A Sort Of Emptying Out Occurs, A Giving Up On The World That Seems Oddly Familiar Even If You've Never Done It Before.

Right Now, America Doesn't Ask Us To Do Anything Besides Pay Taxes. We Don't Even Have To Vote. But As Psychologists Will Tell You, When You Have To Sacrifice For Something, You Value It More. What About National Service For Young People? Everybody Between 18 And 24 Could Spend A Year Or Two Working For This Country In Some Capacity. It'd Be An Amazing Thing. And It Would Mix This Country Racially, Culturally, Economically.

War Affected My Family A Lot, And I Was Quite Curious About It. I First Went Off To War In The Early 90's As A Journalist, Partly Out Of Curiosity And Partly Because I Needed A Career. War Reporting Has Been Very Glamorous And Exciting, And Everything Else That Young Men Like.

The Negative Effects Of Combat Were Nightmares, And I'd Get Jumpy Around Certain Noises And Stuff, But You'd Have That After A Car Accident Or A Bad Divorce. Life's Filled With Trauma. You Don't Need To Go To War To Find It It's Going To Find You. We All Deal With It, And The Effects Go Away After Awhile. At Least They Did For Me.

No One Will Remember That President Obama Supported The Arab Spring If It Eventually Fails And The Region Collapses Back Into The Political Dark Ages. If We Actively Engage These Movements With Advice, With Money, And, When Necessary, With Military Force, Then We Get A Vote In How It All Turns Out.