War and Stupid Wars: A special report

‘Don’t do stupid stuff’, is supposed to have been President Obama’s own description of the essence of his foreign policy doctrine. It is said, however, that privately instead of ‘stuff’ he used a spicier S-word. Whatever the precise word, what he meant was wars: don’t fight stupid ones. This report examines the West’s recent  conduct of war since the end of the Cold War  and finds  that most cases  where  war is stupid  are wars of choice. The report  concludes with an examination of  the case of Ukraine as a stupid war.