Hebrew University professor Martin van Creveld, considered by some to be Israel’s most respected military historian, has presented his opinion on the Iraq war in this week’s issue of Forward. Calling the Bush administration’s war “the most foolish” war since 9 B.C., van Creveld declared that the “thing to do is to forget about face-saving and conduct a classic withdrawal.”

Van Creveld’s “classic withdrawal” entails a “continued [U.S.] military presence, made up of air, sea and a moderate number of ground forces.”

True, this sort of withdrawal is highly similar to what others might call “non-withdrawal.” But real withdrawal is simply not an option, he argues, because “the region, with its vast oil reserves, is simply too important for that.”