Column 136

Lessons from Bush's war on terrorism

Looking at the United States from the outside in, these are the primary lessons the world should take away from America's "global war on terrorism" under the Bush-Cheney administration.

Potential state-based adversaries should take little comfort from the U.S. government's record in Afghanistan and Iraq, primarily because its military has proven itself capable of learning how to better shape postwar outcomes -- its Achilles' heel since World War II. Worse, for them, that learning curve has kept its casualty levels low enough to call into question the long-held assumption that America has the patience only for short wars.

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Read on at Scripps Howard.

Comments

[David Emery]

One of your best columns... But it seems to me this pretty much indirectly argues we're continuing the position we've been in since the end of World War II (with the possible exception of Korea in 1950): The US is more vulnerable on the political side than the military side.

[ryan]

newborn sysadmin has taken it's first steps?

[Tom Barnett]

This column has a very interesting history.

Remember the 12 lessons from Iraq column a while back? Well, a Dem-leaning think tank of some note is putting together a book on the subject and the head of the project (old friend, former Kerry staffer) asked me to pen something. So I cranked the first column.

And it was REJECTED! Politely, but firmly.

I was a bit stunned, as I thought it was pretty good.

This guy's comeback: Too much inside-baseball when we want an outside-looking-in set of lessons learned. You are the guy to write it, we think.

Intrigued plenty, I thought long and hard, and came up with this piece instead, trimming about one-third to repurpose as a column.