The confluence of developments in medical knowledge and military technology enabled doctors to learn a great deal about surgery during the American Civil War. Since, at the war’s outset, very few physicians had any experience treating gunshot wounds, P.J. Horwitz—a Jew from Baltimore and the Union navy’s surgeon general—authored a brief manual on the subject. Here are two excerpts:

Gunshot wounds include all injuries produced by firearms, and partake of the nature both of contused and lacerated wounds. The symptoms of a gunshot wound vary with the parts injured. When the wound is merely fleshy, and the mind of the individual wounded is not directed to the injury, the pain and inconvenience may be so inconsiderable as not to attract his notice, till his attention is called to his condition by the bystanders, or by some circumstances not connected with his injury. . . .

If on first seeing a patient who is wounded he is found to be much prostrated, the best thing to do is to try and soothe him by an encouraging manner, and assurances of his speedy recovery, and at the same to administer such stimulus as he requires, such as brandy and water, a little wine water and ammonia if necessary. Should he complain of much pain, a little laudanum would be serviceable; sometimes also an external warmth may be required.

Analyzing the recent direct Iranian attack on Israel, and Israel’s security situation more generally, Michael Oren looks to the 2015 agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. That, and President Biden’s efforts to resurrect the deal after Donald Trump left it, are in his view the source of the current crisis:

Of the original motivations for the deal—blocking Iran’s path to the bomb and transforming Iran into a peaceful nation—neither remained. All Biden was left with was the ability to kick the can down the road and to uphold Barack Obama’s singular foreign-policy achievement.

In order to achieve that result, the administration has repeatedly refused to punish Iran for its malign actions:

Historians will survey this inexplicable record and wonder how the United States not only allowed Iran repeatedly to assault its citizens, soldiers, and allies but consistently rewarded it for doing so. They may well conclude that in a desperate effort to avoid getting dragged into a regional Middle Eastern war, the U.S. might well have precipitated one.

While America’s friends in the Middle East, especially Israel, have every reason to feel grateful for the vital assistance they received in intercepting Iran’s missile and drone onslaught, they might also ask what the U.S. can now do differently to deter Iran from further aggression. . . . Tehran will see this weekend’s direct attack on Israel as a victory—their own—for their ability to continue threatening Israel and destabilizing the Middle East with impunity.

Israel, of course, must respond differently. Our target cannot simply be the Iranian proxies that surround our country and that have waged war on us since October 7, but, as the Saudis call it, “the head of the snake.”