Journalists of today like to call what they write “the rough draft of history,” but this is only true if you assume that history will share the interests and values of the journalists. Admittedly, there are few signs as yet that it will not. There is no reason that I know of to suppose that subsequent generations of the English-speaking American elites will be any less devoted to pop-cultural trivia and stories of the heroes of our various “liberations” from traditional restraints than today’s are. Yet it does seem just possible that they might also recover an interest in more traditional kinds of heroes, in which case they may find the rough draft our times have bequeathed them a little bit inadequate, particularly when it comes to military men.

This is to some extent a worldwide problem. In March Peter Oborne, political columnist of the London Daily Express, wrote an article for The Spectator titled & ...

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