Duplicity repeats itself in Libya

What did you learn in school today / Dear little boy of mine? / I learned that war is not so bad / I learned of the great ones we have had / We fought in Germany and in France / And some day I might get my chance / That's what I learned in school today / That's what I learned in school.

The lines of Tom Paxton, immortalized by Pete Seeger's voice, sum up the tragedy being played out in Libya. Paxton was right, to hope warmongers will ever value peace is anything but wise.

History is awash with examples. Vietnam was thought to have taught the US a lesson or so it seemed before US-led forces attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. That is not to say the US had stopped interfering in other countries' internal affairs after Vietnam and before Afghanistan. That list is indeed long. What Afghanistan and Iraq (on a false pretext) did is give former US president George W. Bush the chance to mask his bloody wars as a "war on terror".