Learning from the past.

Looking at the big picture, today, what historical errors and mistakes do you see being recommitted? Why?

For example, compare the War in Iraq with another similar action in the past. How are they similar? How are they different? Does history really repeat itself?

Feel free to run with the topic.

Hmm, history does tend to repeat itself.

But anyway, I don't know really. It's hard to say.

I never found that History repeats itself really. Their are some similarities at points I think, but to say it repeats itself is (as for now) wrong, I think.

Originally posted by Bardock42
I never found that History repeats itself really. Their are some similarities at points I think, but to say it repeats itself is (as for now) wrong, I think.

Figures you'd be the rebel of the group. Can you demonstrate how history doesn't repeat itself then?

well for one we should learn but alas we will not because ppl have their pride and eagerness, so we will never stop the bad from happening, so i just accept it as it is.

One of the things i have learned from the past, is that the soldiers of today are nothing compared to the soldiers of ancient times.

Depends on what you're talking about. People in the past had fewer luxuries, and could be indoctrinated by force and by the belief in a divine king or cause. That's not especially true today. Also, they were more physically active, even as civilians, in the past then they are today.

As far as training... Well, the U.s. Military has basic for what? 9 weeks? Something like that? In the 1400s, an English knight began his training in the art of war at the age of about 5 or 6. He would continue to practice every day save for holidays and Sundays until he was in his early twenties, when he would either become a knight or remain as someone else's squire. And then of course old world battles were very up close and personal, requiring great physical strength and dexterity, and determination. There were no living cowards on the battlefield when it went still. Today, we can train boys in a few months to fire a weapon at a target meters upon meters away. Nothing is easier and more impersonal than shooting someone with a gun.

How about pressing the "Nuke" button?

That's actually a very complicated procedure.

Originally posted by Janus Marius
Looking at the big picture, today, what historical errors and mistakes do you see being recommitted? Why?

For example, compare the War in Iraq with another similar action in the past. How are they similar? How are they different? Does history really repeat itself?

Feel free to run with the topic.

The history does repet itself, and every time it does, the price for the re-run becomes higher and higher.

War in Iraq could be compared to Viet Nam. United States went in Viet Nam for no good cause leading to a lot of people dying, to accomplish nothing in the end.

You would think that people would have learned that since then the war like that should never be fought in America's name....but no. Its repeting all over again...

Have we learnt from the past? I would have to say no we are still waging war on each other.

Originally posted by Janus Marius
Depends on what you're talking about. People in the past had fewer luxuries, and could be indoctrinated by force and by the belief in a divine king or cause. That's not especially true today. Also, they were more physically active, even as civilians, in the past then they are today.

As far as training... Well, the U.s. Military has basic for what? 9 weeks? Something like that? In the 1400s, an English knight began his training in the art of war at the age of about 5 or 6. He would continue to practice every day save for holidays and Sundays until he was in his early twenties, when he would either become a knight or remain as someone else's squire. And then of course old world battles were very up close and personal, requiring great physical strength and dexterity, and determination. There were no living cowards on the battlefield when it went still. Today, we can train boys in a few months to fire a weapon at a target meters upon meters away. Nothing is easier and more impersonal than shooting someone with a gun.

Originally posted by lil bitchiness
The history does repet itself, and every time it does, the price for the re-run becomes higher and higher.

War in Iraq could be compared to Viet Nam. United States went in Viet Nam for no good cause leading to a lot of people dying, to accomplish nothing in the end.

You would think that people would have learned that since then the war like that should never be fought in America's name....but no. Its repeting all over again...

The only just war is a last resort, self defense. This Iraq intervention, while perhaps propped up to disable evil weapons programs and remove a vile dictator, doesn't fit that category. Also, there are dictators in many oppressive regimes worldwide, but the U.S. doesn't intervene there. We have one not eighty miles off the coast of Florida.

Exactly, and i wouldve love to have been a Hoplite Soldier.

In the past, being a warrior was a lifestyle, and a career choice. It meant showing loyalty to your countrymen, your lord, your family, and protecting all that you hold dear with the faith and strength of your body, because that is all you had.

Nowadays, they are misled men and boys, holding weapons of incredible destruction that require next to no dedication. There's no built-in control mechanism, because the soldiers don't have to master an art other than the art of pointing and clicking (Which you can learn to do at an arcade terminal, for about two quarters a pop). Other methods of destruction include pressing buttons, levers, entering coordinates, etc.

See, when a man buys a gun, he has the power to kill literally at his fingertips for no cost of experience and mastery. As long as he can aim and fire, he can kill. This is a far cry from the martial artist who learns to kill using his bare hands via a rigorous and long program, or the melee warrior who molds his body itself into a fighting force.

Originally posted by Janus Marius
Also, there are dictators in many oppressive regimes worldwide, but the U.S. doesn't intervene there.

Without a doubt.

Amongst other, I never understood how Clinton Administration claimed genocide in Kosovo, and a region in need of a rescue, while completely undermining Darfur, for example...

Originally posted by lil bitchiness
Without a doubt.

Amongst other, I never understood how Clinton Administration claimed genocide in Kosovo, and a region in need of a rescue, while completely undermining Darfur, for example...

No doubt a publicly unseen web of politics dictating which are proper targets of intervention. Remember the classic centerpiece of realpolitik: a nation never does anything unless it's in its best interests to do so. National egocentricism, if you will.