It's a rhetorical question of course. This administration is nothing if not foolish.
I have been observing one or two missed opportunities to take a peak at history (or even the previous administration) and learn. I am shocked, saddened, disturbed. But then who am I? A blogger, a writer, a mother, a concerned citizen, a seeker of peace?
In yesterday's New York Times, Jessica T Mathews, (president of the Carnegie endowment for International Peace) makes a powerful call for clear-minded and decisive action with regard to Iran's nuclear ambitions. She argues that as the Clinton administration failed to act decisively with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, so the Bush administration is failing to act decisively with Iran. She calls for negotiation with the enemy.
I have just watched an old a PBS Frontline program Ghosts of Rwanda, in preparation for an upcoming trip to Rwanda to participate in the anniversary of their genocide. (I will be blogging from Kigali.) Oddly I noticed many parallels. In a grim and disturbing assessment of the 100 days in 1994 that resulted in the deaths of 800,000 people, it was inaction, wavering and political expediency that lead to the scale and scope of the disaster. Those on the ground who did anything to help were only able to do so by going face to face with the enemy, by looking evil in the eye.
In Rwanda in 1994, the Clinton administration and the UN failed to act. They wavered. They let politics get in the way of humanity to allow a disaster of such a scale that President Clinton himself came to recognize that this was probably the greatest failure of his administration. The bureaucracy failed over the legal definition of the word genocide, for to invoke it would have required action.
You might think that in the face of another genocide a mere 10 years later, and having used the word that was too dangerous for the Clinton White House, a faith-based administration might actually DO something to save lives in this decade's genocide. You would be wrong. In Darfur and Chad there is no help, there is no meaningful intervention and the quiet heroes, the Romeo Dallaires, the Dr Philippe Gaillards, the Cpt. Mbaye Diagnes and the Paul Rusesabaginatos are as yet unnamed.
No this administration is hell bent on learning from its own mistakes. Here are some of my favorites being played out: nuclear proliferation or regime change, genocide and intervention, environmental stewardship or short-term economic gain? Feel free to add your own, remember mistakes are not only permissible these days, they appear to be positively welcome!