America's failure in Afghanistan is going to be worse than Vietnam

Trump is absolutely right to be furious over America's losing war effort

U.S. troops outside their base in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Omar Sobhani)

President Trump is furious about Afghanistan. You should be too — not that it will make much of a difference.

Without a major, top-down change in policy — the kind that can't be brought about by slathering on a fresh coat of public outrage — America's war in Afghanistan is going to wind up worse than Vietnam. But rather than just Vietnam's costly loss and fallen domino, our failure in Afghanistan will leave behind a geopolitical cesspool for the ages.

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James Poulos

James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.