It has been two years since the US pulled its troops out of Afghanistan in one of the most humiliating withdrawals the country has ever experienced. An event of this nature has not happened since the days of the Viet Nam war, when hordes of panic-stricken people crowded onto the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, all of them hoping to catch a ride out on a helicopter to escape the wrath of the approaching Viet Cong army. See here for a comparison between then and now.

The retreat from Kabul, Afghanistan, was a disastrous, uncoordinated, debacle which saw thirteen young American servicemen and women killed during the last days. Not only that, but the US military left behind billions of dollars worth of intact war machinery–weapons, vehicles, airplanes, etc., which the Taliban promptly seized. This catastrophe showed the world in vivid detail that the US military had cut and run like a scared rabbit with no regard for anyone left behind–including thirteen young American servicemen and women.

We have not learned. America (the West, NATO) is now bogged down in Ukraine, throwing money at the conflict like it was a bottomless pit, constantly ratcheting up the rhetoric, always edging closer and closer to actual conflict with Russia, never pausing to think about the consequences. Or, as Admiral David Farragut exclaimed, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Sometimes extreme risk-taking can pay off, as Farragut’s gamble proved, but the consequences, if he had failed, would have been a few ships and men lost, whereas, if active, hot war with Russia erupts as a result of America’s provocative foolishness, it (theoretically, at least) could mean the literal end of the world via unlimited nuclear “bombs bursting in air”. Is it worth the risk just to show how tough we are or to maintain the status quo? I think not. Prudence and common sense would dictate a pullback to a more secure position.

If it should happen that the West is able to disentangle itself from Ukraine (with “honor”, no less), there is always the Taiwan issue, the next hurdle to be overcome in the quest to achieve world dominance through overwhelming force. Anyone who is awake and aware can see that the pivot to this new theater of war is already well underway. The propaganda machine is already cranking up the rhetoric, conditioning the masses for a new engagement on a different front. China, it is said, is the main adversary of the American way of life and the implacable foe of “freedom”, therefore, she must be taken down a peg or two.

And the move to total global war ratchets forward another notch. Eventually, unless we experience a genuine sea-change in public opinion, it will hit home, close to home, perhaps even personally. America is not immune to destruction and, in what will be surprising to many, that destruction can happen virtually, even literally, overnight–with little to no warning.

Except for one small thing. We have been warned and we have not learned. It appears that we will not learn until we have to–the hard way.