What comes next
On the Marshall Plan, time horizons, and why wars aren't over until long after the fighting stops
The most reliable lesson in American martial history is that a war is never really won until the peace has been made secure. That process invariably takes much longer than the armed combat itself, and it is one for which we are never adequately prepared.
■ The many compromises that left Reconstruction incomplete meant that the Civil War continued to exact a very real (and sometimes bloody) toll for decades. World War I came to a conclusion, but the failure to secure a peace led to World War II. World War II was successfully won because it was followed by the Marshall Plan in Europe and by a similar reconstruction in Japan.
■ Reconstruction is hard, but not impossible. In the successful cases, it has required a very large commitment of resources, a considerable degree of political consent (both in the United States and in the place being rebuilt), and above all, a very long time horizon. Take away any one of those three legs, and the stool falls over.
■ Patience is hard to come by once fighting stops: Look at how quickly opinion swung against a US presence in Afghanistan and how immediately the situation deteriorated once the American forces left. This lesson ought to be permanently imprinted on the minds of both the public and the senior elected leadership of the country. Wars may sometimes be just, prudent, and potentially even necessary, but they are never really finished merely because bombs stopped falling.