What a strange game!

Dear Mr. President,
Let's keep this simple.  War is a strange game; the only winning move is not to play.  This lesson should be clear to you by now.  The USA did not win in Iraq; it has not won in Afghanistan.  And now you have even less clear goals in dealing with Syria.  So let's just resist the terrible temptation to play with all those military toys no matter what the toy-makers and the people who have these toys say.  Understand that they like to make things go boom; it's good for their bidness you know.  So take in an old movie, WarGames (1983) comes to mind.  And then we'll see if you can learn.

Been there and done that.

A recent poll tells me something that the Phactor said was coming from day one of the invasion; the majority of USA citizens oppose the fighting in Afghanistan. Yes the people say "war" but since there has been no congressional declaration of war (read your constitution people), it's just fighting, not a war. And it's Vietnam deja vu all over again, a pointless conflict with no clear objectives, no way to win, no easy way to disengage, and you wonder if you're doing more harm to people than good. Do you remember how bad things looked when the USA finally left Vietnam? But now over 3 decades later Vietnam certainly turned out OK, and not at all like the dire predictions. When you do not learn from your past you are doomed to repeat it, but hey, that's what "military intelligence" is all about.,