There's no nation-building without civilization-building and there wasn't a lot of that in U.S.-occupied Afghanistan. For the record, I’ve not only opposed our Mideast military adventures but also, in 2007, wrote an article warning about the folly of “nation-building.” Yet I also know that if you are going to overthrow a tyrannical regime and remake the government, a prerequisite is winning the hearts and minds of the people. You must also recognize that you “never change things by fighting the existing reality,” as famed architect Buckminster Fuller observed. “To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model...