Any student of history knows the failure to learn its lessons leaves a nation likely to repeat its mistakes. On Feb. 23, 1998, an event occurred that went ignored by the United States. Not until September 11, 2001 would its importance become clear -- and, thus, from the vantage point of hindsight, a "lesson learned." For it was then that a little-known terrorist named Osama bin Laden declared war against the U.S. For those who heard it, the declaration must have sounded as ludicrous and nonthreatening as Prime Minister Count Mountjoy's declaration of war against the U.S. in the movie...
