Yes, it's amazing how some of the people I know who are the most embedded in the field (working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, reading updates on movements on t

Yes, it's amazing how some of the people I know who are the most embedded in the field (working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, reading updates on movements on the ground in all parts of the world, casualty lists, diplomatic messages, policy/planning papers) are outside of their work, some of the most cheerful people. It seems extremely demanding. Especially if you're good -- having to disregard most of the information and especially commentary designed for public consumption. I think the most stark, but in a way obvious, lesson is that we should hold ourselves responsible for the predictable outcomes of our actions. It is no good to say "our enemy is evil" and do something that we can reasonably predict will lead to an "evil" action by "our enemy". (Of course you can't always minimize in this way, but it's an important point, because there are numerous recent examples where predictable outcomes were very bad, but ideology won out).