Sublime

of the federal government will be questioned.

Human beings, regrettable though it may be, are inherently vicious and have to be restrained from their viciousness.

One problem in large bureaucracies is that many of the members decide it is better not to cross people, instead of standing on principle.

Antistate actors who might have won international sympathy and even logistical support, only a year or two earlier now found themselves recast as terrorists.

There must be a price paid for starting and losing wars. That price includes a diminished status in the postwar peace negotiations.

Certainly, experts are indispensable. They cannot govern, however, because their perspective is limited by their expertise. But as a class they have come to rule the federal government’s relation to the United States.

Unlike in other institutions, arguments cannot be ignored or dismissed without discussion.

Again it was brought home to Israel that its Arab enemies could afford to lose war after war with no threat to their existence and no danger to their civilian populations. But if Israel lost even a single war, it could mean the end of the Jewish state, a massacre of its civilian population, and the transfer of surviving refugees out of the country.

Where war is considered tantamount to national suicide, surrender may appear the lesser of two evils.”