Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 52

Afghanistan Endgame
Lessons from Cambodia
1973-1975
Lt. Col. Kevin D. Stringer, U.S. Army Reserve
Lt. Col. Kevin D. Stringer, U.S. Army Reserve, is a Fellow at the Center for
the Study of Civil-Military Operations, West Point, and an adjunct faculty
member at the Joint Special Operations University. He holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Zurich and an M.A. from Boston University and is a graduate
of the U.S. Army War College Defense Strategy Course.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Nathaniel
Young (standing), a military
intelligence advisor, conducts
an after-action review following
low-level voice intercept training
with Afghan National Army
soldiers near Forward Operating
Base Lightning, Paktia Province,
Afghanistan, 9 December 2012.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Aaron Ricca, 115th Mobile

History has limitations as a guiding signpost, however, for although it can show
us the right direction, it does not give detailed information about the road conditions.
But its negative value as a warning sign is more definite. History can show us what to
avoid, even if it does not teach us what to do by showing the most common mistakes
that mankind is apt to make and to repeat.

Public Affairs Detachment)

–Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart

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September-October 2014  MILITARY REVIEW