Every time there was a setback in Iraq, it was treated in the press as if it were an unprecedented failure. But wars are filled with mistakes, says Victor Davis Hanson in the new Claremont Review:
“[W]hat is missing from the national debate over the ‘worst’ war in our history is any appreciation of past American military errors-political, strategic, technological, intelligence, tactical-that nearly cost us victory in far more important conflicts. Nor do we accept the savage irony of war that only through errors, tragic though they may be, do successful armies adjust in time to discover winning strategies, tactics, and generals.
“Preoccupied with the daily news from Baghdad, we seem to think our generation is unique in experiencing the heartbreak of an error-plagued war. We forget that victory in every war goes to the side that commits fewer mistakes-and learns more from them in less time-not to the side that makes no mistakes.”
Being resolute, says Hanson, is what ultimately counts.