So the cease-fire has taken hold in southern Lebanon. I’m wondering, though, who won? Here we have on one hand President Bush claiming victory for Israel and saying that Hezbollah has been defeated. On the other hand, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah claiming a “strategic, historic victory.”

This Sunday is Hiroshima Day, the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki. While the conventional wisdom is that the mass murder of 150,000 Japanese civilians (and U.S. prisoners of war) was absolutely necessary to end the Pacific sphere of World War II by minimizing U.S. troop casualties and forcing a quick, unconditional Japanese surrender, a thorough review of historical documents and secondary analyses [...]