This is a must read.  From Victor Davis Hanson, a great article discussing the real need for serious students to engage with the issue of war.  One of the tragedies of this day and age is the inability of individuals to any longer see things within a broader context.  History offers us not exact parallels with our time, but rough outlines that can at least partially illuminate where we are now.  Given that war is one of the most devastating, sad, and awesome endeavors that mankind engages in, it should be understood.  However, as Hanson argues, this subject is taken less seriously than many far less substantial areas of study.  Given that war is with us today, was with us yesterday, and will be with us tomorrow, perhaps, we should all learn a bit about it beyond the simplistic “war is bad” (or the less popular but equally vapid “war is good”).  War is omnipresent and very relevant; this makes it a sobering, yet essential subject for inquiry.  People must be able to put it into an overall context and not cherry pick information, however, if we don’t allow for real study, how can such context ever be gleaned?  This quote from the article is telling: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things,” observed the British philosopher John Stuart Mill. “The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”  Context matters.