War is ultimately about collectivism. During crisis, individuality fades in favor of team effort. During violent conflict, particularly between governments, the world becomes, especially it seems for Americans, a giant, bloody football game: our team versus theirs, us versus them, good versus evil. Go, team, go. This, of course, leads to all sorts of fallacious thinking, such as “Death to them is not like death to us,” “We have to let them bomb us so they won’t know we’ve broken the codes,” “Using nuclear bombs on civilians saved lives,” “Everything changed on September 11th,” and “Don’t you...