Howling at the Moon

The S.O.B. Letter Column

Bob Robles

Happy holidays to one and all! One book, took me a while to work through. But first, an editorial: picture a great power embroiled in a long war against a cunning and able foe. This great power is able to project its military power with little fear of interference anywhere in the known world. This great power commits itself to a military campaign in an area of marginal military significance after demagogues sawy the populace to commit blood and treasure. Disaster follows. Sound familiar? Then I strongly suggest you read, :'The Peloponnesian War' by Donald Kagan. Professor Kagan condenses his enormous history of this war to a very readable volume. Thucydides history is a great companion for its personal viewpoint on the war. What I found very interesting about this book is not the inevitable comparisons to the Cold War (Athens vs Sparta) or the second Iraq war, but how a democracy fights wars. Very enlightening. The history is overwhelmingly from Athens' viewpoint, possibly because Spartan records were much fewer?