The challenge for Washington is no longer whether it possesses sufficient capabilities, but whether the political system can align those capabilities behind a coherent long-term priority.
If the President of the United States behaves primarily as the chief negotiator for corporate America, then alliances themselves become contingent commodities.
Even as Washington may call and claim victory, notional or real, the global pain of the brash and so-called bold and illegal strikes will be real for years to come.
[W]hen ethics are abandoned for epics, and when political power subverts rational military decision-making, it is not surprising that symptoms of strategic fatigue begin to develop.