A Lack of Will

From time to time we see a sentence or a phrase that just seems so right, so apt, that we have to share it with you. This one comes from RealClearWorld, from a column originally in Le Figaro by Renaud Girard. His writes how modernity has made the West unable to prevail in wars they once would have won.

The West engaged in costly wars in the deserts of the Hindu Kush, Mesopotamia, and the Sahel. Wars they can never win, for lack of being willing to resort to the level of cruelty of 19th century colonial expeditions.

Where did the idea of civilized, refined war come from? How absurd is that?