When the men with stars on their shoulders are told to sit down

Augustus never recovered from three words. When news reached Rome that three legions had been annihilated in the Teutoburg Forest, the emperor is said to have wandered his palace for months, striking his head against the doorframe and crying, “Quintili Vare, legiones redde!” Give me back my legions, Varus. Varus had been warned. A German chieftain named Segestes had told him, in plain language, that his ally Arminius was leading him into a trap. Varus outranked the warning. Three legions ceased to exist in an afternoon. Washington is not Teutoburg. But six months into a war with Iran that was supposed to last four to six weeks, the pattern of ignoring the men whose job is to know better has […]