Does history have to repeat itself?

"Those who forget their history are bound to repeat it"

I have noticed theres not alot of difference between the 60's and nowdays.
Again America find itself fighting for another country's democracy.Protests cloud the streets.And again we have more and more people dying because of it.America,as well as the rest of the world has failed to learn from history.Blindly we send our potential scientists,judges,doctors,fathers of to die in another war.The truth being most of the potential is going to be destroyed in the time it takes a bullet to pierce the flesh. But why? For freedom?Indepedence?Oil?

Fight the good fight,so the saying goes.But when is it time to say enough is enough? Iraq,much like Vietnam is in an ongoing geurilla war. We should have learned in Vietnam,that Americas continuing occupation only leads to more dying and destruction for both sides. Freedom is a right everyone deserves.But its now up to the Iraqis to fight for theirs.Its no longer the worlds jub to fight for another countries freedom for it. The number of soldiers and civilians dead are far too high already.Some will say its no where near the death toll of Vietnam,but this war has yet to meet its end.South Vietnam fell because of its dependency on the U.S and the lacjk of will to fight for their own freedom.

How many more have to contimue to die before everyones satisfied?What determines a end to a war?The amount of protests by the public in the streets?The amount of funerals held for civilians and soldiers alike?

America is heading towards paradise lost for another generation of potentially promising futures for many.In the end,the rich will get richer,families will be destroyed,homes broken and it will all be for not.

Much like the 60's America swept Vietnam under the rug only to mive onto Korea.Where many more died.And today we have the brooms ready to put Iraq under the rug and stare out the window at Iran.

Why do we have to travel this oh so familiar road?And is the road set in stone?
Overall only the living truly experience freedom.

Didnt know where to post this.Also just was trying to figure this question out for myself.Thanks for taking the time to read.

[edit on 25-3-2006 by Black_Fox]

I believe the exact quote you refer too is;

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-George Santayana

And I do agree with you completely. But this goes alot farther then the Vietnamese, Korean, Iraq wars.

Look at WWI, never before was destruction seen on such a grand scale. We thought we could leave the blame on one countrys lap and expect no reaction. Hence, WWII.

America fought the civil war so the individual man could live a good life, free some governments without accountability. After the war ended, the common mans life did not really change much. Slavery did not go anywhere for another few years, the corporations were the main beneficiarys after the civil war.

They exploited from the death of so many, did we as individuals learn anything from that? Not a lick!

Its a sad thing to say but the common man is an idiot. For every person who lives that actually gives a hoot, there has to be five that do not.

We are forever in this loop of stupidity. The only thing that changes are the dates and names.

I had posted this a while ago,and sadly,the question remains the same.The world seems pretty set on repeating history.And the world sits on the sidelines and watches it,like a re run unfolding in front of their eyes.So i guess my new question is,can anything be done to prevent this?

I don't know if any of you have seen that movie Excalibur (I'm sure some have), but that part after Arthur pull's the Sword from the Stone, when Merlin say's to him 'For it is the Doom of Men that they Forget'. So True.

I think it is the ongoing war against evil. I mean, you vanquish it for a time, then it reappear's in a slightly different form. Mere Men cannot finish this.

"History" does not "repeat itself."
There are only coincidences and similarities..
"History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot." --Mark Twain

Try this one, as well:
"History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another." --Max Beerbohm
hnn.us...

or how about "history is written by the victor" -- adolf hitler.

Wow!! Quite a list there. I like the one, 'History is written by the Victor'. Hard to repeat that one (when you're in the middle of it) I guess.

I personally default to Ecclesiaste's, 'There is Nothing New Under the Sun'. Vanity of Vanitie's, All is Vanity...................

while I do agree with the statement..
I dont think todays actions are a result of not understanding our history.

I think todays actions are knowing what is approaching... Mainly in terms of the oil.

After everything youve read, seen and heard...

There was NO reason to go into iraq other than something that was physically there.


But even so, in todays world.. even if the history was repeating itself.. there's nothing we can do about it.
There is enough trailer trash out there, whom scoff down there Mikkey D's, watch springer and stroke there pistols to give the administration enough followers to remain in power.


More directly, I beleive todays actions are just a long, rolling ongoing effect from World war 1.

Why?

that one bullet changed the world for decades to come.
World war 1, bread war fare technology far before it was needed.
TANKS.
It also bread 1x Adolf hitler, someoen with enough mental ability to use his countries failure and his citizens sapped moral to rally up people and follow him and bring about his goals.
Tanks are what gave hitler that critical advantage.
The blitzkreig which wiped out europe was born from WW1.
ww2 bread nuclear weaponsm, Israel and the communist era.
this in turn bred Vietnam and Korean wars, the influence of the russians over western values.
It bred muslim finaticism against Israel, whom removed an arab nation to create its foundations.
This resulted in the Arab wars, which showed the dependancy the west has on oil.
This in turn bred men like the Bush family, who in turn created the term terrorism and the now war on terror.

What is happening now is just a long time line starting with that single bullet.

Its not that we cant remember or understand history.. its that we are still involed in it, and are merely contributing to it.

So if that One Bullet hadn't been fired? Would another take it's place : eventually? Thing's don't change but maybe the name's right? So what is this thing we're involved in?

History is a list of men's failure's. Success's are short lived, like us. Alway's twisted to evil given time. Our nature's I guess.......................

Gotta love What If's...

I saw a news report the other day on TV,
this is a bit off topic but it struck me as one of those moments here mankind could of had a completely different future had 1 or 2 minor things had of happened.

In WW1, the Aussie army was facing up against a germany machine gun nest, on some farm paddock. In the middle was the nest operating iwth a handful of german infantry men.

The australians charged at this nest, and all were shot down to shred.
Some, got close.. REAL close..
close enough they could see the looks on the faces of these germans..
If one of these man, had of had good enough fortunes to lob a grenade into that bunker... he would of killed Adolf hitler..

He was one of the infantry men guarding that machine gun nest...
I dont blame the aussie, I praise them for there heroics, but just imagine if by some fluke one man, had of gotten of one grenade...

Todays world would be very very different.
Would Israel exist?
Would sept11 of happened?
Would GWBush be in power?
Who knows..

It goes to show that mankind 9/10 times has his fate and his future resting on the flip of a coin.

It goes to show that mankind 9/10 times has his fate and his future resting on the flip of a coin.

It would seem that way, but I believe that all outcome's are set. Sure, the Actor's may be this guy or that gal. But at the end of the day, the Play come's off just the way it's scripted. If it wasn't Hitler, it would have been ____. If it's not Bush, it would be ____.

In other word's, I believe we have an enemy and we have a friend. One is trying to get our attention, the other is trying to hide.

I have noticed theres not alot of difference between the 60's and nowdays.

I disagree. The popular music today isn't nearly as good.