How we fight our wars: crusades and quagmires.

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.
• Position: Brief article

In a recent book talk at FPRI, Dominic Tierney used the monuments and memorials on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to show how the country distinguishes and remembers crusading wars and quagmires.

The Lincoln Memorial and the statue of General Grant symbolize the momentous war that ended slavery and saved the Union. The World War II Memorial glories in our victory over Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese militarists. Meanwhile, the memorials to Korea and Vietnam are memorialized with grim and forbidding monuments that recognize and honor the valor of our soldiers, but eschew triumphalism.

"The type of war that we are comfortable fighting is very narrow," according to Tierney. "The enemy must be a state and not an insurgency. And we need to march on the adversary's capital and topple the government." Tierney noted, "As soon as Washington deviates from this model, the glue binding together public support for the war effort starts to come unstuck. This insight explains why people back some conflicts but not others, how the United States fights, why Washington wins and loses, and how...