Learning from history

I have nothing less than the utmost respect for our military men and women, but I feel a deep disappointment for too many of our American leaders over the past six decades who have yet to understand history. Their failure in this regard, and their acceptance of the theory of “preventive war” has more than once resulted in the foolishness of sending our brave forces into battles they should not have been facing.
 
We have learned nothing from the British Empire’s experience of losing a battle with our ancestors, the British owned thirteen small colonies, despite the fact that, at the time, the British were the world's most dominant military power. Having learned nothing, we in America thought we could succeed in wars in Vietnam, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and our incredible losses in human lives and monetary funds have only served to erode our nation and diminish our reputation around the world.
 
It is time for us to return our focus to curing our own internal cancers including the fixing of our national infrastructure, the economic healing of our lower and middle classes, and the eradication of human bias and hatred of “the other” which, if not cured, will continue to limit our America’s ability to become the joined community so hoped for by our Founding Fathers and Mothers when they provided us with our Declaration of Independence and our American Federal Constitution.