Thread by @RadioFreeTom

Just to continue pissing people off about this, civilians who talk about "forever wars" were not "at war." We were never asked to sacrifice a damn thing. Volunteers were in combat and in danger in two short actual wars and then in protracted, preventive security ops. /1

Americans wanted to be "at war" to gain clear "victory" in places where that wasn't possible. We destroyed AQ, the Hussein regime, and most of ISIS. All things that made us more secure, and then we said: "Okay, just keep doing whatever it is that's working, we're busy." /2

As @dandrezner once wrote, U.S. governing elites were not constrained by foreign policy issues because the public doesn't really care about. The military was war weary and overstretched, but the public just didn't care that much, no matter how much they say they did. /3

We have been captured by our belief that moderns wars have "exit strategies" and "end states," when in reality the ungoverned suburbs of civilization do not have conflicts with neat expiration dates. What matters is how much risk you'll accept. We wanted zero risk, zero costs. /4

We allowed AFG to become a political football, with whoever made the first move to escalate a "warmonger" and whoever made the first move to get out a "coward." We, the people, paralyzed elected leaders because we wanted safety and didn't want to hear costs or "how." /5

In the meantime, we called everything "war" and created a new class of Spartans, venerated by civilians who wanted to believe we were all in a great fight together. TYFYS became a mantra about a "war" that the politicians wouldn't end - b/c wouldn't let them end it. /5

We outsourced security to volunteers and told them to put their medals on their license plates. We created public rituals of military-patriotic theater that would have made the old USSR nod with recognition. But make a decision either to stay or to go?
Oh, no, no thank you. /6

And don't for a moment think this wasn't bipartisan. Some of us wanted to leave, some to say, but in the end it was "just keep doing whatever it is, and we'll justify it as 'war,'" instead of just being cold, hard adults making cold, hard decisions about a dangerous world. /7

I'm okay with Biden's decision; we've lost any sense of purpose so it's wise to end it. I'd have *also* been okay with "Look, we're staying forever, and if you join the military, expect to go there, and here's WHY."
But "just go keep the bad people away" wasn't a policy. /8

I'm not actually against nation-building and "staying as deterrence." Worked pretty well in a lot of places we've fought. But you have to be willing to stick around in a dangerous place for a long time; that's why I brought up Korea. (Kids, ask your parents about the PUEBLO.) /9

But staying because you don't have a plan and you're just racking up enemy kills isn't a policy. We stayed too long and risked lives out of inertia. But if the U.S. public one day blames Joe Biden for another threat emanating from Central Asia, I hope they remember today. /10

We fought two brief wars against two regimes and deposed them both. Then we stayed because the public wanted to say TYFYS and fly flags but couldn't be arsed to figure out what they wanted from those victories. That's not a reason to say. So I'm glad we're out. I guess. /11x