Military historian Martin van Creveld famously said back in 2005 that the American-led invasion of Iraq was "the most foolish war since the Emperor Augustus sent his legions into Germany in 9 BC and lost them." Except to correct the date (9 AD, in fact), the influential Israeli scholar says his opinion of the Iraq adventure hasn't changed. And as it starts to wind down, with a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces due inside the next 30 months, Van Creveld's vision of the U.S. military's final days in Iraq is, well, pretty grim. "Several years ago I wrote an article in which I said the invasion would end exactly like Vietnam, with people hanging from the skids of helicopters," he told me over the phone this week. "I may have exaggerated a bit. But not much."
As President Barack Obama met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday, in fact, the big question lurking behind all the official optimism was how best to insure that an orderly U.S. withdrawal does not become a retreat or, in the end, a rout. And the answers are far from clear.
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