We received a letter from an erudite reader we are proud to number among our audience. With his permission, we are publishing it, with the proviso that his views are his alone and do not reflect the views of the Department of Defense or any of its arms. His citation of Winston Churchill speaks volumes about our present day situation: My name is Peter Ahern and I am an active duty Marine officer currently stationed in Florida.  My Marines and I have supported operations in Iraq for the last two years and we are very proud of our and the Nation's accomplishments in Iraq and in many other locations.  What I and many others fear most is not an Iraqi insurgency but a National sense of despondency and as the British in WWII called it — defeatism. While rereading Winston Churchill's War Leadership by Martin Gilbert I found an interesting passage on combating defeatism during the dark days of the summer of 1940.  After a German raid on Newcastle in which 11 civilians...(Read Full Post)