The case for studying military history

The Belmont Club engages in some well justified self-congratulation by comparing its own earlier analysis of the origins of the Iraqi insurgency with an investigative report that appeared in Newsweek yesterday. I'm less than a novice student of military history, but a careful reading of the Belmont post reveals, within its explicit analyses, an implicit argument for close study of important battles, strategies, and tactics. In other words, if Americans knew more about how warfare works, they would be less susceptible to the hysteria of bloviating nitwits like Ted Kennedy and Michael Moore.

My first full-scale experience with military history was Victor Davis Hanson's Carnage and Culture, and it effected a complete change in the way I view all of history.