What Happens When a War Breaks Out?

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At two p m on october sixth, no one has any idea that a war is about to break out. And then it does. egyptian forces surge, cross the suez canal and overrun the very scant israelli defences on the canal. The syrian army carpets the golon with artillery and then surges into the golon heights. And the israeli defenders on the golan heights fall back. It was pretty close, certainly, in the first week of the war. In is Israel's completely unprepared there. There were signs that were missed, and this becomes a great scandal about how israily intelligence failed, about how the military failed, but how the

In October 1973, an unhappy Leonard Cohen was listening to the radio on his Greek island home when he heard that Israel was at war. He headed to Tel Aviv, exchanging a personal and creative crisis for a national one. Absent a plan and even a guitar, Cohen wound up serenading Israeli soldiers at the front. Journalist Matti Friedman talks about his book Who by Fire with EconTalk host Russ Roberts and explains how a songwriter and a nation were transformed in the crucible of war.