In the Christian year 9, Publius Quintilius Varus led the XVII, XVIII and XIX Legions, accompanied by auxiliaries and women and children, through the Teutoburg Wald to winter quarters. Ambushed by German tribes led by Arminius, the Romans were annihilated. When he heard the news, Augustus cried, “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” The Romans never again ventured north of the Rhine or Danube. Are we looking at the same thing? Have we, like the Romans, reached the high water mark of empire? Will withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq be the end of nation building, the end of engagement in the Muslim world? Will our policy no longer be forward leaning but reactive? I sure hope so.

 

 

Afghanistan is not a State

And they don’t really care

The tribe, the clan, all else they hate

They do not want us there

We pour in cash, we get guys killed

For nothing I can see

It matters not the roads we build

A country it won’t be

We tried to change the Islam world

To bring them up to snuff

And for our pains got rockets hurled

I say enough’s enough

Just let them stew in their own juice

And keep our powder dry

And if they turn their rockets loose

Just blow them all sky high

 

 See my sci fi CHRYSALIS at Amazon, paperback and 99 cent Kindle. A city at the bottom of a lake and a love-sick medusa. What could go wrong?