Are the Classics Relevant Today?

The NY Times reports today on a $3.7 million grant to establish an independent production company, Theater of War, to visit 50 military bases staging readings of Sophocles' Ajax and Philoctetes. It reminds me of Jean Anouilh's adaptation of Antigone as a part of the World War II French resistance effort. What do you think of the Pentagon spending money on theatrical performances of plays written by Sophocles a couple of thousand years ago? I did find out from this article that Sophocles had been a general - who knew?