Despite President Obama’s high hopes of withdrawing behind the castle walls, the United States is going to be playing a major role in the Middle East and South Asia for some time. The rise of Islamic State extremists, who exploited the U.S. troop withdrawal to seize control of territory in Iraq and Syria, is all the proof we need of that reality.

At the same time, there are serious questions as to how prepared the United States is for this ongoing mission. We continue to boast the best-trained, most professional and effective military force in world history, but our nation’s leaders show little stomach for sending or allowing that force to do its job.