War (1996)

In April 1996, Israel launched a military operation called "Operation Grapes of Wrath." It was an attempt to crush the Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon. It, like George W’s invasion of Iraq, split the public and caused a great national debate. At the time I heard some after-dinner speaker close with the line "Speeches are like love affairs, any fool can start one but it takes a lot of skill to end one gracefully." The line had obviously been taken from some book on after-dinner speaking. It occurred to me that the comment was as true about war as it was about public speaking.