Danny’s brother is being deployed back to Iraq for a third deployment..
He asked me if I truly believed that civilized people learn from history.
I said yes I do believe this..

He brought to my attention a statement by General Douglas MacArthur’s speech before the joint session of Congress on April 19, 1951.
In part the statement said:
“Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”
But once war is forces upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war there is no substitute for victory.

I believe there is a lesson here..