War means fighting, and fighting means killing.

No damn man kills me and lives.

My accent does slip. When I arrived in England in 1978 at 18, I was shocked to find myself 'the American' at RADA. The English and the Americans have an intense relationship. They helped us out in the Second World War.

We have a sufficient political class, and the military doesn't have to get involved in high national office. The days of doing that, post-Civil War and post-World War II, are gone.

So many people of my generation who served in the government were prisoners of the Cold War culture, still are.

We must recognize the chief characteristic of the modern era - a permanent state of what I call violent peace.