Iraq and Afghanistan have become America's wars without end

Reading about another catastrophically maimed casualty of the “hearts and minds” counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, I was struck by a biographical note. This young American, now a triple amputee after stepping on an improvised explosive device while on foot patrol, was only 11 years old when the war in Afghanistan began.

Come October, this war will have lasted a decade. Last month, the Iraq War passed the eight-year-mark. During the Vietnam War, the question was whether there was any “light at the end of the tunnel.”