Despite these growing security challenges, the United States continues a drug war that wastes exquisite military tools, destabilizes fragile states, and sours hemispheric relations - yet fails to gain any measurable progress. Today, great-power competition with China and Russia demands far more disciplined force planning and deepened alliances.
That benign security environment is long gone. The excess of means and dearth of serious threats soon had the military chasing drug runners and trying to stabilize failed states. To decide is to kill options, from Latin roots meaning “to cut away.” Given that real strategy demands hard choices, which extraneous missions must die on the altar of priority? The Department of Defense wandered into law enforcement roles as the Cold War faded and the end of history seductively promised an end to interstate competition.
