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Oftentimes, discussion of war gets flattened to a discussion of trauma.

When they are preparing for war, those who rule by force speak most copiously about peace until they have completed the mobilization process.

Things need shaking up politically, culturally.

What's so touching is the way we fight the war right until the moment our business is taken care of and then we turn on a dime and we immediately start taking care of people. It's like a shock and aw shucks campaign.

We are today, in this country, convulsed by the situation in Iraq. It is an extraordinary crisis. It is taxing our men and women in uniform, and it is certainly taxing our resolve.

There are these moments in the military where you're present at these enormous intersections of history and humanity. I came out of the end of that, and I just wanted to write. If you do it well, you know it will last. It can't get blown away like everything else.

If it's just screaming - and I know this sounds so ridiculous - that gets old. But sometimes when there's literal chaos, it's like being in a war zone, and that's kind of exciting. You're just running through the crowd of people chasing after you and no one knows what's going on.

Every so often you might have an outburst in the gallery. That's one of the most exciting things that happen because then you can say, 'Unless there's order we will call the Sergeant at Arms.' And that sounds really scary.

It is not uncommon in modern times to see governments straining every nerve to keep the peace, and the people whom they represent, with patriotic enthusiasm and resentment over real or fancied wrongs, urging them forward to war.

When I hear Donald Trump say the American military is a disaster, I want to go through the screen and shake the guy. We ought to have a commander in chief who talks about our troops with respect and gratitude.