Is the US military worth the $1.5 trillion being spent on it? President Biden called the US militarily ‘the most powerful nation in the history of the world.’ On the campaign trail Kamala Harriss called it the ‘strongest most lethal fighting force in the world. President Trump has called it ‘the strongest military on the face of the earth’. Events, however, have belied this cross-party consensus.

The Iran is clearly failing. The international relations specialist Stephen Walt today called on Trump to ‘just admit defeat’. And this most recent failure is not an exception. The ignominious defeat in Afghanistan recalled that in Vietnam, Iraq became a quagmire within a couple of years. Apart from overrunning tiny countries like Grenada and Panama, the US has no military successes to name. Before Vietnam, Korea ended in stalemate.

How ...