America has lost every single war since World War II. Starting with Korea and Vietnam, it is now stuck with Iraq and Afghanistan. Syndromes associated with these wars are proliferating. America is thus cautious about Libya, which prompts your ruminations about whether or not Americans will make war no more (“Libya and the Iraq Syndrome,” March 5, 2011). Indeed, it is time for all the bungling over some six decades to be mulled over in view of syndromes galore. It is a joy to read that Bob Gates, the defense secretary whom Barack Obama inherited from George Bush, said in a speech at West Point last week that “any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined.” Very well put. I worry about the remaining continents, though. Does this mean that any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big land army into Europe or the Americas should not have his head examined?