Beaufort, the Tehran Grand Bazaar, and boots on the ground in Lebanon

A twelfth-century Crusader fortress in southern Lebanon teaches a lesson that Washington keeps refusing to learn: ceasefires are not a strategy, and walking away from the battlefield only guarantees the next generation will have to return to it.

Beaufort is a twelfth-century Crusader fortress perched on a commanding height in southern Lebanon. For nearly a thousand years it has been used to control vast stretches of territory and to launch military operations with relative impunity. Its position is not just strategically significant. It is a symbol of who holds the ground and who does not.

On...