My father-in-law was a Naval Academy graduate and a veteran of WWII. He once told me that the lesson the US Navy learned from that terrible conflict was “don’t fight a land war in Asia.” My Dad was a Marine, he fought in Korea a few years later. Apparently we hadn’t learned the lesson.

Sixty-one years ago we “sent in the Marines” to a country in Asia. See photo above. (It’s from a James M. Lindsay article at Council of Foreign Relations.) We were in Vietnam another ten years.

Thirty-six years ago we fought another land war in Asia (Kuwait and Iraq). We followed that with land wars in Afghanistan (2001-2021) and again in Iraq (2003-2011).

It seems we are once again “sending in the Marines.” This time Iran is the target.

In every case things were longer, costlier, bloodier, uglier, and more complex than the original expectations. And this particular mess is being led by the most corrupt and the most incompetent crew of despots ever to command US troops.

Happy Pi Day.