"The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn"

The Romans conquered Britain, too.


Recently I have

a) been writing like a dog (but I'm not sure if they write. Have never had any. Hopefully they do, and a lot, because otherwise this saying is not at all correct). And also I have

b) tried to cope with Miss Funnybunny's tantrums. She has a strong will, and if Mr HP or I, either one of us is away or even absent-minded, for a longer period of time ("longer period" = one evening), she really seems upset and demanding! But this is what raising a kid is about, I know, I know... I should add I have

c) heard pretty incredible but unfortunately true stories from Russia, and I will update them by posting some of them here, too. Did you know this Medvedev is as bad as Putin, or even worse? So it really seems. But I'll get back to this. And, as usual,

d) visited amazing places in Helsinki (= will tell you more about this, too). Do not miss the fact that I have

e) planned my new trips, bought plane tickets, etc: London in April, Oslo in May, Vienna in June and Frankfurt in October. At least these. This list must include the fact that I have

f) visited Tallinn very briefly. Next time I have to stay there at least for two days and stay overnight, of course. Just because that town is so nice and interesting. The more you see, the more you want to discover. And, soon I will

g) go to a publishing party of a book written by two friends of mine. The book is a quiz on Ice Hockey. The National season is about to end soon, and the Hockey World Cup games will take place in May in Canada. Exciting.

But all the above were just excuses for not having updated this for a week. The text below is the real topic of today's blog post:

Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster".

But we have used these parallels before and they have drifted away in the Tigris breeze. Iraq is swamped in blood. Yet what is the state of our remorse? Why, we will have a public inquiry – but not yet! If only inadequacy was our only sin.

Today, we are engaged in a fruitless debate. What went wrong? How did the people – the senatus populusque Romanus of our modern world – not rise up in rebellion when told the lies about weapons of mass destruction, about Saddam's links with Osama bin Laden and 11 September? How did we let it happen? And how come we didn't plan for the aftermath of war?

***

Well, well. I hope Mr Fisk (='fish' in Swedish, by the way) understands I tried to speak up and did not think for a moment the war would solve anything. And I was not against the deadly plot (cooked up by Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, etc - Blair?) alone, there were zillions of people marching against the predicted war in several countries.

As a matter of fact, I happened to be protesting in London, too, at the time of the book fair, when the Parliament was making a decision on joining the attack, and thousands of people were shouting and demonstrating outside Whitehall.

As a counteract "against terrorism" war is the most stupid method. As if killing thousands of people – most of whom are civilians – would do any good. Like, to show an example? No way.

See the Body Count.

PLEASE DO read the rest of the article here, on the Independent web site.