There's a difference between knowing history and bearing grudges. Generally folks who bear grudges have a very poor (and one-sided) view of history. The Great

There's a difference between knowing history and bearing grudges. Generally folks who bear grudges have a very poor (and one-sided) view of history. The Great Depression was not solely caused by the gold standard, although getting rid of it certainly seems to have aided recovery (worth noting since some argue for returning to it). Iraq wasn't going to be like Vietnam either because the people loved us, and our weapons were so much awesomer. Incidentally, Bremer was reading about the occupation of Germany and Japan after WWII on his way to Baghdad. History can be instructive, but you need to use it wisely, not cherry pick the instances that support your existing view. There's plenty of Roman history (for example) that maps beautifully onto modern America, even though we are very different from the Romans.