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Yeah, I thought about that when I was commenting. But I'd say the only major difference is that things happen MUCH more quickly. And even that is still often just a battlefield consideration. The type of judgements involved at a political level have NOT changed, imo. Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, as far back as you can go, it's political judgement about how people react to things and how societies function that's required.
Now I'm sure that stuff has changed too — a modern, industrial society probably doesn't react to things the way an ancient, agrarian one does. But you yerself point to Sun Tzu. His wisdom, insight, whatever you call it, is rightly held up as timeless. Btw, I did study his work years ago in school, and I would agree that, like any great philosophical treatise, it's the kind of thing that one can benefit from reviewing and contemplating repeatedly.
I trained to be a public policy analyst, but along the way I studied a LOT of history and philosophy, and it seems like I keep going back to that, rather than economic and statistical models, in my efforts to understand things. Lately I've been reviewing some of my notes on the writings of Marcus Aurelius, particularly his Meditations, written while campaigning.
"Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error."
"Thou sufferest this justly: for thou choosest rather to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day."
>>back in those days, more men WERE actually familiar with how to wage and manage a war. It was just the way things were back then when men were expected to fight at a moment's notice. He was probably very familiar with the operations of the military for the times.
I don't agree. I'd say they were much more focused on scratching a living in agriculture. The regular Army was quite small and my guess is that militias were not very organized or proficient. Lincoln was a lawyer and a politician. I expect he was quite unfamiliar with fighting and managing a war.
>>I believe that politics are what loses wars. I don't believe America will ever win another war if we don't learn from our mistakes. I've read and seen documentaries about Vietnam, and how mistakes were made because of the fact that it was a "political" war.
I'd say all wars are political. Bad politics makes for bad wars.
>>About TARP, I thought we should have let those companies claim bankruptcy. Though it would have been painful, I think it would have reeked less havoc on the economy in the long run.
In my view, without TARP there was a large risk of a cascading collapse of the financial system and unimaginable damage.
Well, although I can agree with some of your finer points (very good ones BTW), I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about Obama presidency legacy.