ABSTRACT
History has a wicked sense of humor. On the morning of September 11 th, 2001, I sat down to write an essay reconsidering, after a decade's interval, 'The New Warrior Class,' a piece that had suggested the US military pay just a bit more attention to irregular and unconventional threats such as ethnic bullies, terrorists, religious extremists, tribal warriors, narcoguerrillas, and the all-others category that interests adventurers and special operations soldiers, but unnerves diplomats, defense contractors and generals yearning to fight massive tank battles against any armored patsy they might be lucky enough to conjure. The phone rang. It was my mother, whose appetite for disaster is insatiable. She recommended that I tum on the television.
