posted on Jun, 4 2007 @ 01:22 PM
Pro Ernest May in his Lessons from History Oxford NY 1973 demonstrates how by using historical expereince from the imediate last/previous war
politicians and military planners misjudged situations and thus the WW2 in Asia led directly into two military disasters Korea and Vietnam because
comparisons had been drawn which did not equate with reality.
Thus in his Fog of War documentary The ex Ford Co Manager Macnamra who was resposnsible for the Vietnam war tells us that he never understood that the
domino theory was nonsence- in other words all the time USA was in Vietnam the decison makers in Washington were operating on flawed logic and thus
misinterpreting the reports of relaity (and fantasy) being fed to them.
The situation in respect of American and British responses to Japan in the late 1930s and early 40s are no different.
Lessons could have been learnt from the Japanese determination to fight a European power regardless of the cost both in money and human life from the
attack on Russia in 1905... but instead the British were still fighting WW1 and fighting with the protype Talaban up on India's Northwest frontier
and so they did not understand nor respect the Japanese as equals which is exactly what the Japanese were utterly determined to become.
As far as a conspiracy goes yes the failure in the Pacific so that by Dec 10th 1941 every British or US ship was either sunk or steaming for
California... as far as a conspiracy goes there is a case to answer and thus there is serious elements of historical revisionism in what Churchill is
saying in his account (as in the 1920s the Britsh nearly lost the Aust/NZ part of their empire and thus churchill is sensitive to justifable criticism
that in letting Singapore fall he had abandoned that part of the empire)
But the other side of exactly the same coin of history is this miscalculation which allowed a potentially superior force (had it been well led)
stationed in Malaya to defeat a seaborne invasion from Japan of half the number of men.
Incompetance or conspiracy.... I suggest that we are dealing with both.
Now who cares what happend in Singapore almost 70 years ago
History is bunk I couldn't agree more with you.
What I want to talk about is the current vulmerability of another current world empire- the one which has since replaced the British empire in terms
of military world dominance and political power......
Can we learn anything about that empire as most people confidently worldwide see it as being in it's final days; it's inevitable collapse; and like
the British in all their colonial racist glory (come on stand up and sing with me "Rule Brittania Britania rules the waves Britian never never will
be slaves").....Can we learn anything from their history that could apply to us.
Conclusion: By going back several historical periods so that we are studying someone elses history and understand mentally and spiritually that the
history cannot directly apply to us in a straight line situation... we can indeed "Learn Lessons From History".
By standing back and say for example reading and reading well a book like Persian Fire by Tom Holland 'the first world empire and battle for the
west' we can see the scope of history the forces and determination that develops within human histroy and maybe see the spiritual side(as did
Daniel who lived at the time described in Hollands book) that is at work.
Japan did what she did in the first 50 years of the end of 19th and beginning of 20th centuries because she was driven to become a winner and by
1986-1990 had won all that she was wanting to win.
China now has a similar drive and determination and has already accepted that the 21st century is The Chinese Century (while the 20th is now called
The American Century). therefore nothing as we now know it nothing at all will stay the same everything (to quote a book i read) Everything that can
be shaken will be shaken,
We have history to warn us just how bad...no its worse