When war fails?

The George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” is again timely. For example:

▪ Korea: We didn’t lose it, but we did not win it. It appears to have been a draw, but how many years later do we still have to keep 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea to help maintain the status quo?

▪ Vietnam: Maybe President Donald Trump will come up with a really great trade deal that will help us forget about this one.

▪ Iraq and Afghanistan: At best, the jury is still out. For those who believed Trump when he said he knew more about ISIS than the generals and it would be no problem to defeat ISIS, I sincerely hope they were right, but it looks doubtful.

Those military actions and Syria have something in common. What do you do when war does not work? If Trump had learned this lesson from the past, we might have heard about his plan for the future of Syria.

Pushing the button for 59 missiles was easy. If the Trump administration has given any thought about what to do next, I would be very surprised.

This story was originally published April 17, 2017 at 2:18 PM with the headline "When war fails?."