Answer : STING.
In his song “Russians,” Sting sang that
“There's no such thing as a winnable war
It's a lie we don't believe anymore”
Sting’s song was popular, but Sting was wrong! There are winnable wars, and some wars are worth fighting and winning. WWII was such a war. The fight against the ISIS “caliphate” is another. As Anne Applebaum recently wrote, in an article focused on Afghanistan :
“sometimes only guns can prevent violent extremists from taking power. Yet many people in the liberal democratic world, perhaps most people, don’t want to believe this.”
— https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/liberal-democracy-worth-fight/619833
In the San Francisco Bay area, that bastion of “the liberal democratic world,” an organization called Beyond War flourished in the 1980s. Its leaders and members were thoughtful, well-educated, well-intentioned people who truly believed that, in this nuclear age, war had become obsolete. But that wasn’t true in the ‘80s and it’s not true today.
In a similar fashion, some thoughtful, well-educated, well-intentioned people have called for “defunding the police.” It’s a sweet thought, but it’s bad policy. Unfortunately for all of us, there are still armed robbers, rapists, murderers, and other violent criminals out there. We need police to prevent crime and to apprehend criminals. We need armies to prevent wars. When they can’t be prevented, we need armies to win wars.
This month we appear to have lost the war in Afghanistan to the Taliban – well-armed religious fanatics. As long as they’re armed, they’re dangerous. And right now, thanks to America’s failure to secure the weapons our military brought into Afghanistan, the Taliban are better armed than ever before.
And who is blame for all of this? Sting! 😉