It wasn't ignorance driving over all those IEDs for years and years; it was a military version of the casino delusion: If I don't bet, I can't win.

American foreign policy has a bone-deep contradiction baked right in; the US is a republic and refuses to be an empire, so it does not occupy a country when it sends in a massive army and takes control of it. Instead, it's "nation-building" -- identifying a cooperative power-broker (e.g., Hamid Karzai) and forcefully aligning the people, resources and institutions of the country to, first, put that individual and his (always his) faction in power, and then keep them there as long as they cooperate with the American program.

Because of that original foreign policy contradiction, an American occupation is supposed to end with an orderly withdrawal with the natives waving bye-bye and everyone friends, like Germany in the middle '50s (except the US forces are still in Germany ...). Trouble is, the enemy has a vote, much clearer objectives, and no concern for the voters back home.

Those old enough to remember Vietnam will recognize the pattern.

Allies like Canada, Britain, Australia, Germany and so many others are roped in to make the US occupation look like a world-wide drive to set the target country straight, but the illusion holds up only as long as no one looks too closely.

I hope I live long enough to read some good historical analysis of the last 20 years.