"The March of Folly," by historian Barbara Tuchman, was published 25 years ago. Yet the book does more to explain the Obama administration's approach to the Afghan War than almost anything we've heard from present-day news media.

What happens among policymakers is a "process of self-hypnosis," Tuchman writes. After recounting examples from the Trojan War to the British moves against rebellious American colonists, she devotes the closing chapters of "The March o ...

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