"moral clarity"

The intelligence was clear—a small country in a highly strategic part of the world was arming with weapons of mass destruction. The threat was undeniable. An unstable leader with ties to a homicidal ideology was working overtime to build nuclear and other offensive weapons, despite repeated assurances that no such activity was underway. The American President had to act—he couldn’t allow this imminent mortal threat to go unchallenged.

Iraq in 2002? No, Cuba in 1962. Forty-two years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy faced a crisis that, in retrospect, has many characteristics in common with the run-up to the Iraq War of 2002...

A great read from World on Fire.