The
United States is not incapable of fighting reasonably successful
wars. It did so in the 1991 Iraq war, the 1999 Kosovo war and the
1989 invasion of Panama. In each case, we had a well-defined
adversary in the form of a government, a limited goal and a clear
path to the exit.
We generally fail, though, when we undertake open-ended efforts
to stamp out radical insurgents in societies alien to ours. We lack
the knowledge, the resources, the compelling interest and the
staying power to vanquish those groups.
The Islamic State is vulnerable to its local enemies—which
include nearly every country in the region. But that doesn’t mean
it can be destroyed by us. In fact, it stands to benefit from one
thing at which both Obama and Bush have proved adept: creating
enemies faster than we can kill them.
We don’t know how to conduct a successful war against the
Islamic State. So chances are we’ll have to settle for the other
kind.
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