On Winning

“In a two-power world, there can be no pretense that conflict leads to the common good; any gain for one side is a loss for the other.  Victory without war was in fact what America achieved in the Cold War, a victory which has now obligated it to confront the dilemma described by George Bernard Shaw:”

There are two tragedies in life.  One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

Henry A. Kissinger, Diplomacy, p. 22 (Simon & Schuster, 1994).