"War is the most important thing in the world," writes Martin van Creveld, military historian and author of the monumental work, The Rise and Decline of the State. The survival of every country, government, and individual is ultimately dependent on war - or the ability to wage it in self-defense. That is why, though it may come but once in a hundred years, every country must be prepared every day. In spite of the centrality of war to human...