THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY. The dream - that America is a special place - is dying. Read it all.

There are, I think, two lessons - both on warfare - to be taken from Allen’s commentary. The first is that if the goal is nation-building, then the enemy must be utterly crushed. Rubble bounced, culture destroyed, population left in despair. And a minimum of a generation to rebuild. The second is that if the goal is threat removal, then it must be utterly and completely destroyed, along with the infrastructure needed to reconstitute it. Then leave. Leave quickly, and leave the populace to its own devices.

America hasn’t yet learned those lessons.