A dangerous modesty

摘要

In the white-marbled amphitheatre of A Arlington National Cemetery, on the final Monday of May, Barack Obama delivered a short oration that said much about his view of the exercise of American military power. "Today", the president said, "is the first Memorial Day in 14 years that the United States' is not engaged in a major ground war." America's military presence in Afghanistan, which once stood at more than 100,000 troops, has dwindled to a tenth of that number. It has even fewer troops in Iraq (some of whom are pictured above), providing training and air support, not fighting.