OP-ED: Reliving the Past, By BOB HERBERT, New York Times, September 4, 2009

The structural dynamics here are completely different from a Cold War proxy war. It is not us-versus-them in any meaningful way. The real issue today is America being stuck with the global policing bill because: 1) others like free-riding; 2) we can't imagine allies beyond the West; and 3) we like to be in charge so the outcomes can be ours alone to shape (a chimera if ever there was one).

Using Cold War analogies today on COIN situations is as dumb as using pre-nuke analogies (Hitler being the fave) with emergent nuclear powers. Once you pass into the new world, you can't let yourself be trapped by this thinking. We know the reality we're in. Retreating to the past is not an option. We can't unthink what we've learned.

The perfect expression of this nonsense: Afghanistan has lasted longer than WWI and WWII combined, in terms of U.S. effort.

Somebody needs to read some history of our involvement in Cuba or the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century. These are useless comparisons, like saying my chemo treatments have gone on for weeks longer than my radiation treatments (What's up with that, anyway?).