#Enough pointless wars and other commentary

At Defense One, ex-Marine James Wright takes note of how Americans will have gone to the polls Tuesday having had “little opportunity” to ­reflect on “some of the consequences of earlier elections for national ­security strategies and military engagement.” Ever since World War II — the last armed conflict we entered into with a “clear mission” — our wars “have generally lacked clear and consistent military missions.” From ­Korea to Afghanistan and Iraq, Americans in uniform have served under leaders with a haphazard sense of national strategy and purpose, increasingly fighting for “political” objectives: “to assure a stable and ‘democratic’ government” in hellish corners of the earth. And now a potential conflict with Iran looms. Yet given the history, “it is essential to think strategically about engagement with Iran rather than rattling sabers there.” Otherwise, “we’ve seen this movie before.”

From the right: Twitter’s Surrender

Twitter’s incoherent excuses for blocking The Post’s account for sharing its Hunter Biden reporting prove that social-media companies sanctioning political speech “are often making up the rules as they go,” observes The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Twitter finally unlocked The Post on Friday, after weeks of defending its position by saying its policies are “living documents” — clearly a farce, with its real goal “to control American political debate on the fly.” Ultimately, the “censors buckled under public scrutiny,” which is “good news for independent journalism, even if most of the press won’t recognize it.”

Libertarian: Kids, Parents Screwed Again

Washington public schools were set to reopen next week, but “Lucy has yanked the football away again,” sighs Reason’s Robby Soave. DC again postponed in-person instruction after the teachers’ union, opposing it, told teachers not to teach, even online, as a show of force. “This same dynamic — district announces a reopening date, teachers protest, district relents, working parents suffer — is playing out in large districts across the country.” Yet “we know from schools that have reopened that doing so is relatively safe,” while virtual education is a “disaster.” The problem: Public-school teachers are paid “regardless of whether they actually have to show up.” Imagine if education dollars followed kids, “instead of automatically lining the pockets of institutions” that don’t serve students particularly well.

Buchanan: Dems Will Eat Themselves

The “Democratic Party is going to come apart,” declares Pat Buchanan in an interview with Atilla Sulker at Modern Age. Yes, the “revolution that we’re going through right now — social, cultural — is very strong. It’s captured a far larger share of America’s young than” the 1960s revolution “did when I was writing statements for Richard Nixon about the ­Columbia takeover in” April 1968. Now, a “significant slice of the younger generation” is “caught up with being ‘woke.’ ” But that could be temporary. The Democratic Party “is a coalition of warring tribes held together by their common anticipation of common plunder. They want to get their piece of action out of it. And I don’t know that they can all satisfy each other.” If those under the Dem tent begin to eat themselves, we could see “a new political configuration” as soon as 2022.

Ed reformer: G&T Done Right Boon for Minorities

Those who “insist that the anti-racist thing to do is eliminate” gifted-andtalented education are taking “exactly the wrong approach,” Brandon L. Wright explains in a Fordham Institute post. Yes, gifted ed “has a diversity problem,” but it isn’t “inherently racist.” Rather, we “have long done a poor job of maximizing the potential of students in low-income neighborhoods that are predominantly black and Hispanic.” Worse, critics have gotten G&T killed mainly in urban districts — so better-off suburban kids still benefit, ­increasing the achievement gap. The answer: “Raise schools’ academic rigor in early grades so that disadvantaged pupils are ready for more advanced offerings later,” and then “universally test all students beginning in third grade for gifted programs” — and fill half the program with kids nominated by teachers, whatever their scores.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board