Steely Dan would say: "And they wrote it on the wall," inscribed like the stone stele of Daniel 5:1-31. The words tell us when we will leave.

But how to decode these obscure, fateful words?

Americans like to compare themselves to old Romans, especially those martial...

The place: the River Frigidus, in a country we now call Bosnia. The time: autumn, 394. Two Roman emperors are at war, with the world in the balance. A deciding factor: Alaric's Gothic tribal militia. His shock troops storm the Laager, helping defeat the Western armies and reuniting the empire....

It is our resolute preference to see Zarqawi's death on our terms: what it means to us, how it affects our war. But what does his death mean to the movement of revolutionary Muslim revivalism that we call "Islamic radicalism?"

Two years ago I wrote a paper, Two Enemies: Non-State...

Will we fight Iran?

Another way to ask the question is: Will it be a war of choice?

In other words, will war happen because we want it, and freely decide that this is the best outcome of policies we have approved?

Or instead, will relentless stories -- iron...

The President's State of the Union message reminds us that war is more than violent activity -- it is also symbolic activity.

But what kind of symbolic activity? War is about meaning: war's symbols celebrate who we are, and wars do this by telling us a sacred story. The best...

There are two famous clichés about foreign wars and domestic politics.

The first of course is emblazoned by Vietnam, where the war that goes wrong over there comes back home to task our very souls. Perhaps it leads to a constitutional crisis narrowly averted, like Watergate. Perhaps, like the Mexican...

The Global War on Terrorism has produced its share of domestic political battles. But these little battles never get to the heart of the GWOT. Its existential "big ideas" are still unquestioned after four years.

I have been exchanging emails with a friend high up in the administration. He defends...

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier's novel of the American Civil War's final months, has much to tell us about Iraq.

First, almost nothing can be achieved in a place with multiple competing armed authorities, each saying that they are the real law, and each all too ready to take human life...