I have spent much of my life around war. My first combat tour was in Vietnam in 1969-70, where I served as an infantry platoon commander and later a reconnaissance platoon commander. I returned during the 1972 Easter Offensive as an aerial observer and Vietnamese linguist. Later came the evacuation of Americans from Beirut in 1976, service during the 1990-91 First Gulf War, and, after retiring from the Marine Corps, 11 years training and mentoring security forces in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Those experiences taught me a lesson America repeatedly seems determined to relearn the hard way: Winning battles is not the same as winning wars.