Outside View: Strategic incompetence: "During World War II Winston Churchill and his generals frequently complained about the inability of America to think strategically, relying instead on nearly unlimited resources to deliver the tools that ultimately won the war. Some two decades later as the Vietnam War raged, Harvard Professor Stanley Hoffmann wistfully observed that America believed that its adversaries either reasoned strategically as we did or were in desperate need of being educated to our level. When America overwhelmed the Taliban in Afghanistan and then overthrew Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the aim was to change the geostrategic landscape of the greater Middle East.
But we never seriously asked 'what next?' -- a signal mark of incompetence. We, the Afghans and Iraqis are still paying that price. Unfortunately, the landscape of that region has been changed -- and not to our liking."
