Still Not Learning From History

[Doc7505]

Still Not Learning From History​

Still Not Learning From History | Frontpage Mag​

Bad ideas and practices that we have witnessed over and over again.

www.frontpagemag.com
14 Feb 2024 ~~ By Bruce Thornton

From its beginning 2400 years ago in ancient Greece, the purpose of history has been to counsel the present by documenting the mistakes of the past. Thucydides explicitly made this goal the purpose of his History of the Peloponnesian War: to memorialize “an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it.” At the violent end of the Roman Republic, the historian Livy similarly explains his intent: to shows us “what to imitate,” and “mark for avoidance what is shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.”
Yet here we are, two millennia later, despite our wealth, technological advances, and much vaster knowledge, still repeating the mistakes and follies not just of the distant past, but of the last half-century. The four years of the Biden administration’s failing foreign policy are the consequence of bad ideas and practices that we have already witnessed over and over.
Until we pay attention to the blunders of the past, and acknowledge the tragic nature of human affairs, we will continue to let misplaced idealism, electoral politics, ideological mantras, and sheer laziness endanger our national security and interests.
~Snip~
The history we’ve failed to learn from does not have to go back to the Twenties and Thirties of the 20th century for monitory examples, when the serial appeasement of Germany began before the ink was dry on the Versailles Treaty, and ended in the most destructive war in history. The Nineties and the rise of al Qaeda provide enough foreign policy decisions “shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.”
~Snip~
So here we go again, our soldiers taking casualties from Iran’s proxies, and our leaders losing their nerve and not punishing the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism that for 45 years has been at war with the U.S. and killing our citizens with impunity. Such are the wages of historical amnesia, political calculations, and feckless foreign policy idealism.


Commentary:
Great article..
I suggest you go to the original to read the entire thesis .
We're supposed to learn from our mistakes and history in order not to repeat the mistakes. It appears we do not.
As Professor Thorton notes, errors repeat themselves continuously in history as though we have learned nothing. We will need some time and additional academic training to understand why this happens on all levels of human activity. Let me suggest here that to truly understand the origins of the problems,
Perhaps all our politicians should be require to study the teachings of Sun Tzu, because the art of war is no different than the art of politics.

“Those who do not learn from history....” Winston Churchill

 

[sealybobo]

Still Not Learning From History​

Still Not Learning From History | Frontpage Mag​

Bad ideas and practices that we have witnessed over and over again.

www.frontpagemag.com
14 Feb 2024 ~~ By Bruce Thornton

From its beginning 2400 years ago in ancient Greece, the purpose of history has been to counsel the present by documenting the mistakes of the past. Thucydides explicitly made this goal the purpose of his History of the Peloponnesian War: to memorialize “an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it.” At the violent end of the Roman Republic, the historian Livy similarly explains his intent: to shows us “what to imitate,” and “mark for avoidance what is shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.”
Yet here we are, two millennia later, despite our wealth, technological advances, and much vaster knowledge, still repeating the mistakes and follies not just of the distant past, but of the last half-century. The four years of the Biden administration’s failing foreign policy are the consequence of bad ideas and practices that we have already witnessed over and over.
Until we pay attention to the blunders of the past, and acknowledge the tragic nature of human affairs, we will continue to let misplaced idealism, electoral politics, ideological mantras, and sheer laziness endanger our national security and interests.
~Snip~
The history we’ve failed to learn from does not have to go back to the Twenties and Thirties of the 20th century for monitory examples, when the serial appeasement of Germany began before the ink was dry on the Versailles Treaty, and ended in the most destructive war in history. The Nineties and the rise of al Qaeda provide enough foreign policy decisions “shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.”
~Snip~
So here we go again, our soldiers taking casualties from Iran’s proxies, and our leaders losing their nerve and not punishing the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism that for 45 years has been at war with the U.S. and killing our citizens with impunity. Such are the wages of historical amnesia, political calculations, and feckless foreign policy idealism.


Commentary:
Great article..
I suggest you go to the original to read the entire thesis .
We're supposed to learn from our mistakes and history in order not to repeat the mistakes. It appears we do not.
As Professor Thorton notes, errors repeat themselves continuously in history as though we have learned nothing. We will need some time and additional academic training to understand why this happens on all levels of human activity. Let me suggest here that to truly understand the origins of the problems,
Perhaps all our politicians should be require to study the teachings of Sun Tzu, because the art of war is no different than the art of politics.

“Those who do not learn from history....” Winston Churchill

Some people learn the wrong lesson or revisionist history. For example, Republicans today try to suggest they gave us civil rights. Or people don't realize Bush stole 2000 not Biden 2020.

 

[gipper]

So what your saying is the US government should make more war. Talk about failing to learn from history.

 

[kyzr]

Very seldom does the same playbook work as planned.

I subscribe to the Mike Tyson approach to the erudite historians and military planners.
Everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time.

A corollary from Prussian Military Commander Helmuth Von Moltke
Kriegsgechichtliche Einzelschriften (1880); often quoted as, ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy’

 

[sealybobo]

So what your saying is the US government should make more war. Talk about failing to learn from history.

You clearly don't know how important Ukraine is to the West. You're a dope.

 

[sealybobo]

Very seldom does the same playbook work as planned.

I subscribe to the Mike Tyson approach to the erudite historians and military planners.
Everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time.

A corollary from Prussian Military Commander Helmuth Von Moltke
Kriegsgechichtliche Einzelschriften (1880); often quoted as, ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy’

Remember Desert Storm? That went as planned. We bombed the shit out of them and we didn't invade Baghdad. Brilliant.

 

[rampart]

Some people learn the wrong lesson or revisionist history. For example, Republicans today try to suggest they gave us civil rights. Or people don't realize Bush stole 2000 not Biden 2020.

i liked the analogy to the end of the roman republic. what Doc7505 missed in that lesson wzs that caesar was the strong man who could fix the roman economy and such.

caesar was not killed by enemies or opponents. "et tu brute"

 

[sealybobo]

Very seldom does the same playbook work as planned.

I subscribe to the Mike Tyson approach to the erudite historians and military planners.
Everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time.

A corollary from Prussian Military Commander Helmuth Von Moltke
Kriegsgechichtliche Einzelschriften (1880); often quoted as, ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy’

Here is another conflict that went according to plan. Kosovo. How many Americans died in Kosovo?

Did any US soldiers died in Kosovo? One person. Dude, he's famous. Pretty cool. The distinction of being the only one.

Alexander Blake Klass, 20, of Willamina, Ore., died July 4 in Kosovo in a noncombat-related incident.

 

[Billiejeens]

You clearly don't know how important Ukraine is to the West. You're a dope.

I do

It's where Obama ran his shadow govt from.

 

[Doc7505]

So what your saying is the US government should make more war. Talk about failing to learn from history.

~~~~~~
Just love it how Lefties can misinterpret words.
Obvious you didn't take the suggestion to read the article in it's entirty.
As usual you've gone off half cocked.

 

[Billiejeens]

Here is another conflict that went according to plan. Kosovo. How many Americans died in Kosovo?

Did any US soldiers died in Kosovo? One person. Dude, he's famous. Pretty cool. The distinction of being the only one.

Alexander Blake Klass, 20, of Willamina, Ore., died July 4 in Kosovo in a noncombat-related incident.

Do the county a solid
Be famous like him.

 

[gipper]

~~~~~~
Just love it how Lefties can misinterpret words.
Obvious you didn't take the suggestion to read the article in it's entirty.
As usual you've gone off half cocked.

I’m not a lefty.

What I read appeared to complain about the US not being MORE interventionist.

 

[gipper]

You clearly don't know how important Ukraine is to the West. You're a dope.

Lol. Ukraine isn’t important to anyone other than Ukrainians, and even many of them abandoned the corrupt made up Nazi infested nation.

Why do you always believe whatever the lying establishment tells you?

 

[sealybobo]

i liked the analogy to the end of the roman republic. what Doc7505 missed in that lesson wzs that caesar was the strong man who could fix the roman economy and such.

caesar was not killed by enemies or opponents. "et tu brute"

Are we comparing Trump to Ceasar?

Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) during a meeting of the Senate where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 times. They claimed to be acting over fears that Caesar's unprecedented concentration of power during his dictatorship was undermining the Roman Republic. At least 60 to 70 senators were party to the conspiracy, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. Despite the death of Caesar, the conspirators were unable to restore the institutions of the Republic. The ramifications of the assassination led to his martyrdom, the Liberators' civil war and ultimately to the Principate period of the Roman Empire.

Today there are 48 democrats in the Senate and I'm sure there are 20 RINO's who would go along.

Interesting that today it was Trump who sent a mob to assassinate the Senators not the other way around. LOL

 

[whitehall]

Sadly most H.S. grads in the past quarter century have no concept of history. Maybe that's the way the federal education system planned it.

 

[sealybobo]

Lol. Ukraine isn’t important to anyone other than Ukrainians, and even many of them abandoned the corrupt made up Nazi infested nation.

Why do you always believe whatever the lying establishment tells you?

I listen to people who know geo political details and trust me, Ukraine is vital to the west. You just don't know it. Trust me, people in charge know Ukraine is important. Food, energy, nuclear, natural resources. Why do you think Russia wants it?

You clearly are listening to right wing propoganda. Trump is on Russia's side. They help him he helps them.

Don't you see? Trump starts fights with our allies and friends with our enemies. Classic dictator move.

 

[rampart]

Are we comparing Trump to Ceasar?

Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) during a meeting of the Senate where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 times. They claimed to be acting over fears that Caesar's unprecedented concentration of power during his dictatorship was undermining the Roman Republic. At least 60 to 70 senators were party to the conspiracy, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. Despite the death of Caesar, the conspirators were unable to restore the institutions of the Republic. The ramifications of the assassination led to his martyrdom, the Liberators' civil war and ultimately to the Principate period of the Roman Empire.

Today there are 48 democrats in the Senate and I'm sure there are 20 RINO's who would go along.

Interesting that today it was Trump who sent a mob to assassinate the Senators not the other way around. LOL

the means of caesar's deatrh , each senator taking a shna;llow enough cut as not to be a murderer, but with the cumulative desanguination .........

 

[sealybobo]

Sadly most H.S. grads in the past quarter century have no concept of history. Maybe that's the way the federal education system planned it.

Remember when America was great? It was back when it didn't matter if you were smart. You could get a job for the Big 3 and raise a family, retire with money in the bank, health coverage.

So now only smart Americans can be successful. Is that your position? Of course it is. Thank god for Unions. They won big last year. So those high school grads need to learn the history of unions. Sometimes, like now, they are necessary.

 

[kyzr]

Remember Desert Storm? That went as planned. We bombed the shit out of them and we didn't invade Baghdad. Brilliant.

We should have invaded Baghdad and captured Saddam then. Baghdad was undefended. Would have saved lives and money.

 

[gipper]

I listen to people who know geo political details and trust me, Ukraine is vital to the west. You just don't know it. Trust me, people in charge know Ukraine is important. Food, energy, nuclear, natural resources. Why do you think Russia wants it?

You clearly are listening to right wing propoganda. Trump is on Russia's side. They help him he helps them.

Don't you see? Trump starts fights with our allies and friends with our enemies. Classic dictator move.

Get informed for once.