In one of Aesop’s fables, a deer fleeing hunters takes refuge in a cave, only to fall prey to a lion into whose den he had stumbled. The moral: Sometimes safety is an illusion hiding greater dangers.
Let me offer an updated version: The deer flees to the cave knowing the lion was there, hoping to hire the lion to take out the hunter.
Paul D. Miller is a contributing writer for The Dispatch and professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University. He previously served on the national security council staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. His most recent book is "Choosing Defeat: The Twenty-Year Saga of How America Lost Afghanistan."
