Niall Ferguson, Columnist
Novelists and filmmakers have long developed alternative histories of major conflicts that should serve as warnings for complacent Americans.
Corrected
London, blitzed.
Photographer: London Express/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Are we unable to imagine defeat?
You might have thought that, having so recently lost a small war, Americans would have no difficulty picturing the consequences of losing a large one. But the humiliating abandonment of Afghanistan in 2021 has been consigned with remarkable swiftness to the collective memory hole.