by Secre

Created on: February 07, 2008

I am arguing that yes, history should be our teacher when looking at policy. This does not, however, mean that we should cling to the past or replicate any of the mistakes that have been made, but rather pay attention to the effects of the actions which have dictated both the successes and disasters of our society. In this sense it is the complete opposite, by looking at the past we can see where we have gone wrong and try to correct the mistakes.

The world as it is currently was created by the actions of others. If this simple fact cannot be understood, then this debate cannot progress. History is responsible for where we are today, and if we do not pay attention then we will simply repeat the mistakes made before by others. An article on the 'No' side of this debate used Vietnam as a reason why we should not use history as our teacher, but if anything Vietnam shows the opposite. The mistake made in Vietnam was not in using history, but in the way history was used. Yes, they used textbook history but what they didn't look at was the context of the history they were using. History can only be our teacher if we use it correctly. The Americans made plenty of basic mistakes in Vietnam, including lack of knowledge of terrain and lack of communication with the natives, if they had used South Korea 1957 and not followed the tactics of the British in South Africa 1898 and 1902; the Scorched Earth Policy, particularly as it failed on both occasions the British attempted to use it, they would have stood a better chance of winning that war.

In World War I, the first area that the British Expeditionary Force moved into was not France, nor was it Belgium. It was Iraq: a secure place from which oil could be extracted in vast quantities. After the war, the Ottoman Empire was disbanded by the victors and this led to problems occurring in the Middle East which have lasted to this day.

But how does this affect today's problems? In Iraq, a "coalition of the Willing" moved into a politically stable country (Like the Ottoman Empire) and proceeded to disband the police force: it is this if anything which has led to chaos in Iraq today. Even Lenin, upon taking over Russia in 1917, retained the Cheka (later to become the NKVD and then the KGB); a Tsarist institution which, although tyrannical, retained the crucial stability that allowed the Communists to stay in office. Likewise, the Communists in Germany in 1945 kept the Gestapo, renaming it the Stasi, in order to retain control. We

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