In 2014 a Gallup poll was taken among 60,000 people in sixty countries. Results were not well received by public opinion researchers from the USA. Respondents believed the United States and Israel were the two most dangerous threats to peace.

Compared to origins of human history in Mesopotamia over 4000 years ago, the United States and Israel are mere infants. “Millennials” are replacing “baby boomers.” Thomas Jefferson pointed out “each generation is a new state.”  Do they study history?

One bothersome fact about Israel and the United States is their possession of nuclear weapons. Israel is reluctant to admit nuclear facts but Mordechai Vanunu was sent to prison in Ashkelon, Israel for attempting to tell a London journalist he was a technician in Israel’s nuclear program. Vanunu is now out of prison but not free to leave Israel or talk to journalists.

US historian William Blum (1933 –    ) is an author of six books, a former State Department official and outspoken critic of Washington’s foreign policies. Blum bluntly provides our brief history:

From 1945 – 2003, the USA attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements fighting against intolerable regimes. In that process the US has bombed some 25 countries, caused the end of life for several million people and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair.” (thirdworldtraveler.com)

Over 500,000 people have perished in Iraq since the 2003 invasion was launched by President George W. Bush. In March 2015, the British Chilcot report denounced Prime Minister Tony Blair for joining the United States bombardment/destruction of Iraq.

Since leaving Vietnam in 1975 the US has invaded fifteen nations.

Neither Bush, Blair nor any US Commander-In-Chief has been brought before The International Court of Justice for war crimes.

Nine nuclear nations in 2016 possess over 15,000 weapons 600 times more powerful than 20,000 ton bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A military historian speaking to an audience in Philadelphia around 1982 was asked why he continued to speak against warfare.  “Because nuclear weapons have not been used the third time.”

It behooves all of us to recall George Santayana: “If we do not study history, we will be condemned to repeat it.”