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 become impossible to miss.

Start with the man who no longer holds his job. General Randy George, the Army’s Chief of Staff, was forced into immediate retirement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in early April. No official reason was given. The timing did the talking: the order came one day after President Trump’s address signaling intensified strikes and a renewed three-week promise of resolution.

Start with the man who no longer holds his job. General Randy George, the Army’s Chief of Staff, was forced into immediate retirement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in early April. No official reason was given. The timing did the talking: the order came one day after President Trump’s address signaling intensified strikes and a renewed three-week promise of resolution.

George was a four-star infantry officer with four decades in uniform, including the Gulf War and Iraq. By most accounts inside the Pentagon, he was the general most willing to tell the president plainly that a ground campaign in Iran risked becoming what analysts were already calling operational suicide. He did not resign. He was........

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