Thucydides

You've probably never heard of this guy. I hadn't. He was the Athenian who wrote The History of the Peloponnesian Wars. These were the wars between Athens and Sparta.

If I had the floor before the Council on Foreign Relations, the Department of Homeland Security, or even the Department of Defense, I might share this brief observation from the 5th century B.C.

It is useless to attack a man who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.

But, I'm even more fond of the following...

A nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its laws made by cowards and its wars fought by fools.

Who was this guy, and why couldn't he live in our century?