Even after the carnage in Iraq, a lot of Americans have fantasies about American power when it comes to compelling other countries to bend to our will. I guess this is how post-war Britain stumbled into Suez.

I suspect these fantasies are sustainable because objecting to them entails local career costs while the global costs of supporting them are largely borne by others who must do the invading, occupying and dying.

So, you know, here we are, eyeing a end to the war in Afghanistan in what would be it’s twenty-third year while also talking loudly about pressuring North Korea to disarm and toppling dictators in Iran and Venezuela.