Tom Nichols

The loser decides when the war is over, unless you literally kill every single person.

But it's the losers who say when it's done.

What if they say, look, we'll drag this on forever.

We'll commit terrorist acts.

We'll keep stuff in reserve and blow the occasional thing up.

Fine, you're going to scuttle part of our fleet.

We'll make the Straits of Hormuz practically unnavigable for insurance companies.

I mean, there's a

In my article, and I know it's a line you know well from the old days, Barbara Bodine talking about after the war in Iraq, she said, there's 500 ways to do this wrong and only two or three ways to do it right.

And what I didn't count on is that we were going to try all 500 ways first.

A completely different approach to war.

This administration, it's almost like the president's speeches are foreign policy mad libs where, you know, we're on fire and just like I've never seen and lay down your weapon, but this is your moment and freedom and we're not.

Who is he talking to?

You know, in both Gulf Wars,

We made an effort.

We, the United States, made an effort to reach out to some of these guys and say, listen, in Gulf I, I know particularly, if you use chemical weapons, you are not going to be able to try a Nuremberg defense.

We sent word to various generals, understand what will happen to you.

Instead, Trump says, everybody out there, if you resist us, you get certain death.

blood gore in the streets, but lay down your weapons.

I feel like, was there any preparation for this?