Stephen Glain's new book, State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire, is a brilliant, sober, sad and important biography of the Department of State since World War II.

New records released after a four year FOIA fight between the State Department and Gawker show that mercenaries, primarily from Blackwater, shot and sometimes killed a lot of Iraqis in the name of protecting America's diplomats.

Our wars, our only legacy from the evil of 9/11, signs of a nation gone mad, have cost America over $4 trillion. Yet while money is one thing to squander, we weep over the unnecessary loss of lives.

The issue of legacy is not so much should we assign blame to a soldier, but to ask: why have we not assigned blame and demanded punishment for the leaders who put those soldiers into the impossible situations they faced?