Will we ever win another war?

By Ben Shapiro

"Popular consensus has it that we are losing the war in Iraq. Robert Gates, the White House nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, stated on Tuesday that the United States was categorically not winning in Iraq. 'What we are now doing is not satisfactory,' Gates said. Popular consensus also has it that we are losing the war in Afghanistan. '[B]ecause of the Bush administration's inattention and mismanagement,' wrote The New York Times editorial board on Tuesday, 'even the good war is going wrong.'

America has not 'won' a major 'hot' war since World War II. The Gulf War cannot be considered a full-fledged victory; it returned the situation in the Middle East to the status quo. The aggressor in that war, Saddam Hussein, would remain in power for another dozen years. The Vietnam War was surely a devastating loss. The Korean War ended in stalemate; North Korea, the aggressor in that war, remains militant and dangerous 50 years later." More...