Why do I love history?

I’ve ALWAYS given a crap about history.  American history, Military history, European History, World History.  My wife cannot understand that, she says ” Who cares??  It’s sooo ……over…”   But it does matter what happened yesterday.

It matters how things got to be the way they are, it does matter how we became a nation, it does matter how the Allies won both WWI  and WWII, and how those wars solidified our position as a world leader.  It also does matter that we learn from our mistakes, both personally and as a nation.  It does matter how we performed and our motivations in Korea, Vietnam, and the tons of other conflicts that we have found our hands in the last 200 years.

It also matters that we learn from our F-ups.  The horrible mess that was the Civil War, fighting and killing each other over, take your pick: Slavery/states rights.  We cannot imagine that now, but imagine America the way it was then, and if that war is not won by the Union, we… today would have two countries, who undoubtedly would have gone to war countless times because of the differences in lifestyles.  Kind of like England and France, who fought themselves in many wars throughout history. 

 The horrible mess we got into in Vietnam, slaughtering our young men in the rice fields of that country, where the old rules of warfare did not exist.  During the day, we bring food and medicines to the local villages, and if they accept or befriend the American’s that were trying to help them, they are slaughtered themselves at night by the Viet Cong who have their own agenda, right or wrong.  It’s easy in hindsight to say which leaders in history were right or wrong now, but we have the benefit of hindsight in our pockets.  I don’t believe any leader starts down a path with bad intentions.  History has tons of evil and or just bad leaders.  But did any of them know where their decisions would lead them?

Let’s take the most evil, preposterous and historically known worst of the worst for a second.  Hitler, came into power in the early 30′s.  The German Weimar republic was a failure, the German people were forced into an existence that barely was livable by the Versailles treaty,  they were being starved, their currency was useless, they had nothing going for them.  Up steps a man who starts raving about how they got the short end of the stick and shortly he gets a following. The Germans were so desperate for leadership it was only a matter of time until they hung their hats on someone.  It was their misfortune to have chosen this madman, who’s hatred of anything and everything non Aryan, caused him to establish policies that would murder MILLIONS of human beings.  But, back to my point.. .ya see.  He thought and his inner circle also had bought off on the notion that what they were doing was GOOD for Germany, and good for the world.  Can you imagine now what the HELL they were thinking??  How is this possible??

Lyndon Johnson was trying to stop the spread of Communism in the world, and in the 60′s political climate it was a valid goal. It didn’t work there, he got into a shit storm that ruined his Presidency.  How did he know that Communism would rot from within by itself?  The lone survivors are few now.  China, North Korea, and of course our former vacation paradise for the corrupt Americans … Cuba.   And maybe there are other nations that are communist, but I can’t think of one.

Damn I’m rambling again.  Sorry.. My point here is that HISTORY MATTERS A HELL OF A LOT!!  And I’ll be discussing my thoughts on the subject.

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