To the Journal editor:

What’s worse than not learning from history? Learning from history then ignoring what’s been learned, that’s what!

Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, said as Kabul was under siege that “Kabul is not Saigon,” referring to the live feed of mayhem on the tarmack at Bagram air base and trying desperately to disabuse the American public of thinking that there’s any similarity between the utter failure of the Vietnam misadventure and our Afghan debacle.

In terms of learning from history, we, and that includes every individual, newspaper editor, talk show pundit and self-deluded military expert who promoted or supported the American incursion into Afghanistan, have centuries of failed attempts by western powers drunk on hubris to learn from.

The Brits and the Soviets failed in Afghanistan in the 18th and 20th centuries, the U.S. failed in Vietnam in the 20th century and now, predictably, we fail again in the 21st century!

As long as we continue electing politicians who don’t read, who know nothing of world history, who have little understanding of deep cultural differences, who fail to act upon what they have learned and still think that America, the greatest country on Earth,” is deservedly in charge we will continue to humiliate ourselves mightily among the responsible nations of the world!