Like many people, I am drawn to stories about heroes. But my taste is not entirely conventional. Superheroes or comic strip heroes or celebrities who do the ordinary but have publicists to paint it as heroic don't work for me. I'm drawn to tales of average Joes, made out of...

Senator Obama swept into national prominence with his prescient view that an American war in Iraq was one we should not start and could not win. By 2007, years of carnage in Iraq had taught many Americans how foolish the Bush Administration's promises of a simple and flower-strewn victory were....