A decade before the fall of Kabul, I was deployed as a governance adviser to Brig. Gen. Scott Miller, who would soon become Gen. Miller, the last US four-star commander to serve on the ground in Afghanistan before the Taliban swept the country.

In the final hours of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Yemen’s Houthi militia as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” and its top leadership as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

As I prepare to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and participate in observing the grand American tradition of a peaceful transition of power from one president to the next, I cannot help but reflect on the significance of this event.

The much-heralded Syrian “cease-fire” that Russia shepherded through last week is already on a fast track to being annulled.