A prime minister of France, Georges Clemenceau, once said, "war is far too serious a matter to be left to the military."
That quote dates back to the World War I era, nearly a century ago. It was true then, true when I first quoted it on these pages during the run-up to the 2004 election and of course true today.
If you ask any subordinate leader in any line of work what they need they will respond "more resources." So all the generals and ex-generals are calling for more resources in Afghanistan. They seek that elusive goal called victory.
In one sense we have already achieved victory over our enemy, al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden and 21 of his 30 immediate subordinate leaders all have been sent on to their rewards in the hereafter.
Drone attacks and special forces raids have done them in. There are only about 50 al-Qaida left in Afghanistan. We are not fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan but their erstwhile hosts, the Taliban elements drawn from the Pashtun tribe.
Tribal war is a perpetual motion machine among the factions in Afghanistan. It never ends. Thus Afghanistan is a land never conquered from the outside. Alexander the Great, with the mightiest military of his era, could not do it. The British Raj, with the best military of that era, could not do it. Within our lifetimes the formidable Soviet Union lost its Afghan war, and ultimately the Soviet Union itself disappeared into the mists of history.
You can no more conquer Afghanistan than you can conquer the tide. Sooner or later you will drown and the tide will continue. Al-Qaida and its affiliates continue on in Yemen, in Somalia, in Pakistan. But when we killed bin Laden we merely removed a symbol. The organization was already broken.
Bin Laden was left to cower in his compound, hatching fanciful plots to kill President Obama, whom he termed the leader of the infidels, and Gen. Petraeus.
But democracies do not depend on individual leaders.
Bin Laden thought Vice President Joseph Biden to be "unprepared for the post" of president.
It is perhaps poetic justice that components of the Biden plan for Afghanistan, which emphasized special forces and drone attacks over conventional forces, was ultimately the blueprint that brought bin Laden down.
We still face dangers around the world. We need a strong military to defend the nation. We do not need to repeat the errors of Alexander, of the British or of the Soviets.
The rampage by an American Army staff sergeant, who had an excellent record up to the time of his attack, is the canary in the coal mine.
We have a superb military. We should not run it into the ground in a war that is not winnable in conventional terms.
Without prejudging the ultimate fate of the noncom in question, I do have some sympathy for him. I too was a staff sergeant in a foreign land. But I served one tour, not four.
Politicians who never wore the uniform are busy criticizing Obama for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan according to a schedule.
That is an easy call for them; they have no relatives in uniform. But we could spend another 10 years in Afghanistan and the situation would be the same as today or perhaps worse.
They counsel the president to listen to the generals. But we have civilian control of the military for a reason.
The president is commander in chief, but he wears no uniform. He must recognize that in war both sides lose.
This old sergeant advises him to recognize that the mission is accomplished to the extent that it can be accomplished, and to accelerate the orderly withdrawal of the bulk of our troops.
Save them to fight another day.
