Angeleo Codevilla has been a relentless critic of the wars conducted by the United States in the wake of 9/11. The Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) has been Codevilla’s publication of choice for these essays, and the new (fall) issue features the latest installment of Codevilla’s critique. It is a critique that I resist without being able to refute. Indeed, I would concede that parts of it are irrefutable.
Ten years after 9/11, Codevilla now asks, where do we stand? According to Codevilla, we are weaker, purposeless, and confused about our national security. Codevilla judges that we have lost the war on terror, and that the world is even more hostile to the United States than it was on September 10, 2011. He argues that one of our mistakes has been to trust the ruling class, as Codevilla calls it, the experts in charge, even though these experts have failed to understand the nation’s best interest or to pursue the policies that further it. A new approach is badly needed — one that comes from clearer thinking about our place in the world and better understanding the true intentions of our enemies.
UPDATE: Over at Maggie’s Farm, Bruce Kesler responds to Codevilla’s essay.
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