I wanted that future officer to weigh decisions with a supple mind and to be comfortable with nuance and uncertainty.

Long distance is hard. You have to trust that as you each change on your own, your relationship will also change along with you. It takes hope, good humor, and idealism. It takes a massive dose of courage to protect the relationship at all odds. It is hard, but worth it. You'll both be stronger as a result.

Operations must have sound, achievable political aims. ... But there are also requirements for police activities ... and the fact is that most militaries are simply not capable of performing such functions effectively and should not be the primary element responsible for them.

The lesson of all history warns us that we should negotiate only when our military superiority is so convincing that we can achieve our objective at the conference table, and deny the aggressor theirs.

I'll let you in on a little secret, Garry: everything is history. By the time you notice it, it's already happened. That famous imposter, "the present," disappears in the cognitive gap. Mind the gap!

... the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord.