Health is a relative value. Achieving it is an uncertain objective. Potentially the demand for health-especially as defined by medical interventions-may be infinite in a social climate in which individuals seek and receive new interventions to extend life or improve some aspect of bodily well being (10) . These observations clash with the languages and perspectives of the policy process in which notions of attacking problems, defeating social ills, or achieving victory in another war on something are commonplace. These rhetorical tropes serve well-recognized strategic and tactical means within the policy processes for mobilizing support, achieving agenda positions, and gaining budgetary allocations. When applied to public health, however, they create unrealistic notions of what can and cannot be accomplished within the frame of health by those practices we term public health. The result is that rhetorically, we are always in some ways losing the public health battle (11, 12) .