The Right Way to Lose a War

A provocative blueprint for how the United States can successfully disengage from failing wars without compromising its core values or interests. For a century, the United States steadily accumulated a string of military triumphs. But since 1945 the onslaught of failures and stalemates in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan has exposed the country's inability to change course after battlefield setbacks---with grave consequences for thousands of American soldiers and our allies. THE RIGHT WAY TO LOSE A WAR provocatively explains how America can draw failed campaigns to a close without compromising its core values through three specific steps---surge, talk, and leave. THE RIGHT WAY TO LOSE A WAR is an essential guidebook for life in an era of unwinnable conflicts, a book made necessary not only by Iraq and Afghanistan, but the future quagmires that may yet come.