, Columnist
The Afghanistan War Wasn’t a Cynical Misadventure
If the U.S. succumbs to the usual postwar revisionism, it will learn nothing useful from a 20-year operation.
Noble fight against a German threat or needless war staged by merchants of death?
Source: Pictorial Parade/Getty Images
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Lost wars are supposed to provoke soul-searching. In America, they usually bring historical revisionism instead. When once-good wars go bad, Americans tend to conclude that there was never anything redeeming about them in the first place.
This impulse is already coloring the debate over Afghanistan. It won’t help the U.S. recover or learn from defeat.