Every issue has one section dedicated to a particular question. Collecting responses from a range of perspectives, these symposia prompt us to think about the values and ideas that shape our most urgent cultural and personal decisions.
Readiness Is Not All
Grammatically, readiness seems to demand a direct object; what exactly are we getting ready for?
The Soldier and the Citizen
A week or so after I arrived at West Point, I opened my car door onto a naked corpse.
Any Volunteers?
The question of who fights, perhaps the most important one of all in a democracy, elicits only occasional comment.
One Must Imagine Faust Happy
Fascination with the relationship between knowledge and power never dies.
Survival Training
I’m running on a track built into Commo Hill and I’m trying to concentrate on my breathing.
Forward March
The conventional soft-focus Hallmark-card reverence ignores the military’s historical injustices and present-day waste. But the progressive left isn’t right, either.
My Complex—and Ours
What I’d really like to do is skip over the statistics-stuffed task of proving that the military-industrial complex is what the military is for.
Military Life
We sent around a questionnaire asking veterans to reflect on their time in the military: what it meant to them, how it changed them and…
