“Endless Wars” have two meanings. The one people use most is a war that goes on and on like Afghanistan. I don’t remember anyone using that term for Viet Nam. Although we had won it, we didn’t know it, and left before a satisfactory conclusion.

            The endless wars I refer to is what our past, current and future enemies have learned from our involvement in Viet Nam and Afghanistan. Iraq might be added to the list. One thing that those wars show is our involvement in fighting a war has a time limit. If an enemy can maintain a conflict long enough, the United States will come up with some agreement the enemy won’t abide by. It will usually be done without consulting with our local allies. The locals we worked with are usually imprisoned or killed when we leave.

            The current agreement with the Taliban is for them to not have anything to do with Al Qaeda or to give them sanctuary. Al Qaeda has been seeping back into Afghanistan already. Another provision was to do no fighting or to expand their territory. Both of those terms have already been broken. The Taliban have already killed hundreds of soldiers, police, and civilians who protected towns or worked with us.

            Military strategy is based on the past battles and wars. As technology has changed the way we fight wars with less advanced enemies, simple ways and mass foot soldiers hiding within civilian populations have become a winning strategy.            

As much as we would all like to get out of Afghanistan sooner or later we will be in another one. If we leave this one without a satisfactory ending to us, then we can expect an endless series of endless wars.