The whole narrative that “Bush diddled in Afghanistan” is plain bull shit. Especially when coupled with “student of military history”.

Well student - here is a word for you - “terrain”

Look it up.

Look up the battles in WW2 on the Italian Peninsula. See how firggun long it took to get from one end to the other. Look up “Gustav line” while you are at it. An “Rapido River”.

Afghanistan’s terrain makes it a place where we will be at a permanent disadvantage there.

Iraq, OTOH, is/was perfectly suited for high speed armor movement with air cover. And Iraq attracted the jihad to terrain where they could be isolated and killed.

The reason why Afghanistan has heated up is that Iraq was won. AQ had to find another place to play. And given that Afghanistan never had a secular middle class like Iraq did, it is a much more hospitable environment to zealots who cut people’s heads off playing music and whatnot.

Just the same, because of terrain, Afghanistan can only be won if the country is modernized. That will cost money we don’t have. So why squander the lives. We should just pull out and hand AQ the PR victory and then bomb the shit out of their training camps from time to time. If we are mean enough to them they will attack Europe instead and Europe can figure out a way to man up and fight.