To paraphrase St Carl (Clausewitz) history should inform the commander's judgment but it should never accompany him to the battlefield, the oped by Professor Brian O'Malley of Jones college, Lessons on Iraq from a Founding Father, to me is a perfect example of how to use history to inform thinking and judgment on current affairs and issues. The piece presents an idea of how George Washington thought about military involvement in a foreign country and spurs the reader to think historically about current American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Professor Jones deploys history to inform, and not to accompany.

Another superb example of the use of history to inform was an oped from last October in the NY Times by Professor Francois Furstenberg of the University of Montreal titled Bush’s Dangerous Liaisons.

I am jealous; I wish I had written either one of them.

gentile