How can this work?

Last evening, I was reminded of a book I read in the 70's on Vietnam and the American lessons from it.

The conclusion of the author--Gloria Emerson--was that the United States people learned nothing from our long and costly involvement in Southeast Asia. (The book was "Winners and Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins from the Vietnam War").

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to successfully debate that point and I think most all people--Americans and others--would agree: Americans just didn't learn the big lessons from the Vietnamese War.

So last evening I was watching "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central and saw and heard Karen Greenberg, the Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security.

She was speaking on her new book about the first 100 days of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the United States, when we first made it a "prisoner of war" camp.

It is Ms. Greenberg's conclusion that the United States simply "doesn't plan ahead" and that this was clear regarding Guantanamo.

So here we are, the United States--one of the wealthiest countries on the planet at least now, if not ever, and we think we're smart, along with all that wealth but we don't learn lessons from the past and we don't plan for the future.

Now, my documentation, above, is anything but strong, I'll grant you, but the two points are easily supportable given our long- and short-term histories. If you look at Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and this more isolated case of Guantanamo Bay, I think it's easy to come to these conclusions--we don't learn from the past and now, don't plan well for the future. (Can you say "climate change"?)

So I ask you, how, exactly, can any group of people possibly be successful in intelligent endeavors--even in lower-level, basic, long-term survival--if we don't learn from the past and plan well for the future?


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Find The Daily Show here: www.comedycentral.com

Find information on Karen Greenberg and The Center on Law and Security here:
http://www.lawandsecurity.org/about_staff.cfm