The death toll for U.S. soldiers in Iraq has reached 3,000, a number that's both unbearable and, compared to previous military operations, a pittance. War can make poets. The British World War I soldier Wilfred Owen had lived as a minor disciple of literary giants until he was thrust into the abattoir of Europe's cataclysmic war to discover the brutal theme of his art. "Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War," he wrote. "My subject is War, and the pity of War." The war invested meaning into his...