Lost War, Lost Lessons

The United States has lost the war for control of Afghanistan, but have the lessons been learnt?

The foreign policy experts who advocated for the invasion and futile nation-building efforts are still in their think-tanks earning big salaries and will sign up for government jobs when they get a chance.

The generals who lied that they were on the verge of winning when the Taliban was growing stronger have retired and gone into lucrative roles in the military.

The security experts who claimed to understand how victory could be achieved, but failed to predict that Kabul would fall in four days are still in their roles telling the government what should be done.

Unfortunately, the belief that the United States is the greatest military and economic power in the world and that it has the responsibility to use that power to remake the world in its image is so deeply ingrained in the political culture that the same mistake will almost certinly be made again.