It seems to me that Afghanistan did the Soviet Union in. It was sort of their Vietnam.   And Reagan did his part, by building up Osama bin Laden and Mr. Hekmatyr and the like. Give him credit for that. There is a certain mentality that says, the only thing that makes life worth living is having enemies to conquer.

And Troll may draw whatever lessons he wants. One lesson I draw is that a nation that goes around looking for fights will suffer for it. Another is, there is a law of unintended consequences. There is no end of potential enemies in this world, and one is likely to create new ones in the process of beating the old ones. Finding enemies to beat is not one of my priorities. I'm not a pacifist, I just think there is a lot to be said for just adjusting to the fact not everyone agrees with us. Fine with me that the Soviet Union is gone, but was it really necessary to strain every nerve to make them go away? Seems to me they were not all that threatening.