The Hawkish Fantasy of Victory

Biden’s failure has been excessive deference to the other states’ definitions of victory.

Bret Stephens attacks Biden’s foreign policy with the usual hawkish whining:

This year, Joe Biden cast the purpose of his presidency as a struggle against authoritarianism, at home and abroad. What’s his theory of victory?

He doesn’t appear to have one. His style of governance is to manage threats, not defeat them.

Hawks like to fault Biden for not doing enough to bring about Ukrainian and Israeli victory, but they have no real theory of victory in these wars, either. They talk about inflicting defeat on the other side, but they never explain how it will happen because as usual they have no clue. The truth is that neither Ukraine nor Israel is going to achieve the maximalist goals set by their governments, and the longer it takes everyone to acknowledge that the longer these wars will drag on.