(Karsten Moran | The New York Times) A flag ceremony before Game 3 of the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in New York, Oct. 8, 2018. "In other ways, our failure in Afghanistan more closely resembles Roman failures that took place far from Rome itself — the defeats that Roman generals suffered in the Mesopotamian deserts or the German forests, when the empire's reach outstripped its grasp," writes The New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat.