Today [Tuesday, September 11, 2018] marks 17 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a day commemorated with pledges to “never forget.” Our grief is well remembered. But too many of us have forgotten, or soon will, what followed on the heels of 9/11: our apparently endless war in Afghanistan. Nearly two decades on, the longest conflict in US history fades in and out of American consciousness — mostly out. The war has settled into grimly familiar patterns large and small. On a weekly and monthly level, the same headlines roll in again and again: A suicide bomber blows up a market, mosque, or other public venue, and dozens of innocents die. A coalition soldier is killed and a few more wounded. A high-ranking Islamic State, al Qaeda, Taliban, or other insurgency leader dies, and his role is soon refilled, hydra-like, by a new generation of radical. Then there are patterns on a larger scale. Three presidential administrations from two political parties have overseen five tr