As we lob cruise missiles upon Iraq, for some reason, this quote popped into my thoughts:

LADY REPORTER: Your Lordship appears rather calm, in the face of the facts. Two violations of international law, both defined by treaty as warlike acts, have recently occurred. Doesn’t that worry the War Ministry at all?

DEFENSE MINISTER: Madam, as you very well know, we do not have a War Ministry here; we have a Defense Ministry. And as far as I know, only one violation of international law has occurred. Would you mind acquainting me with the other?

This quote is from A Canticle for Leibowitz, a book about the world after a nuclear apocalypse, progressing back out of the stone age over a few millenia, only to find themselves again on the verge of a nuclear annihilation.

I guess I was just thinking about that old maxim: “Those who don’t remember history are condemned to repeat it.” God have mercy on us all.