The past as politics - (VDH on critics of Bush and the War on Terror)

JEWISH WORLD REVIEW.COM ^ | JULY 28, 2005 | VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

[CHARLITE]

So, the next time someone quotes philosopher George Santayana for the umpteenth time that "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it," just assume that what follows will probably be wrong. Having a Rolodex of cocktail party quotes to beef-up an argument is not the same as the hard work of learning about the past.

Thus, we are now warned that the war against terror is failing because it has lasted as long as World War II — as if the length of war, not the cost, determines success.

Yet the nearly 2,000 U.S. combat fatalities in Afghanistan and Iraq, while tragic, are a fraction of the 292,000 American battle deaths in World War II — about .6 percent, in fact.

On July 21, Arianna Huffington, on her Huffington Post blog, drew on her Greek heritage to warn us that Iraq is like the Athenians' 415 B.C. disastrous attack on the Sicilian city of Syracuse. So, she huffs, "Maybe someone should send Karl Rove a copy of Thucydides."

She should, instead, carefully reread her own copy of the historian's work. The Athenians attacked a democracy larger than their own. Yet Thucydides implies that Athens still could have taken Syracuse had its generals and the people back home not bickered amongst themselves. Perhaps if the United States attacked India and lost, Ms. Huffington's analogy might make sense.

The mantra "Bush lied; thousands died" charges that the president altered his reasons for the war from the original worry over weapons of mass destruction.

[CHARLITE]

http://jewishworldreview.com/0705/hanson072805.php3

Well worth reading the whole piece.

[CHARLITE]

Victor Davis Hanson ping!

Char

[MizSterious]

The quote is as valid now as ever--the history we're trying to avoid repeating is what happened on 9/11--and all the other terrorist attacks before and after. Clinton had no inclination to avoid repeating history--he just didn't want to have to deal with the "t" word on his watch. I will forever believe that he deliberately left a ticking time bomb for GWB to face.

[SunkenCiv]

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Thanks CHARLITE. Note: this topic is from 7/28/2005. Blast from the Past. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.