SOME THOUGHTS FROM BEHIND THE WALLS OF BARHAM ABBEY: IS HISTORY NO LONGER TAUGHT AT THE ACADEMIES AND AT COLUMBIA, HARVARD AND YALE?

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN

WILL AND ARIEL DURANT

This morning, while accomplishing some of my chores within the walls of Barham Abbey, my mind began mulling over the latest bad idea of Senator John McCain of Arizona.  Without apparently thinking through all of the possible ramifications, Senator McCain has staked out a position favorable to U.S. intervention on the side of the anti-Assad rebels in the civil war raging in Syria.   Certainly Assad - and his father before him - has not been a benevolent leader, but at least one can say that the regime has prevented the wholesale  persecution of Christians.

The historian Will Durant once famously said, "The main thing that we learn from history is that we do not learn much from history."  No truer words have ever been spoken, and this is especially true for the present generation of leaders and policy makers in the U.S., who cannot seem to even recall current events, much less history of a few decades ago.

SYRIA'S CHRISTIANS WOULD BE THE FIRST TO BE BLOODIED BY ISLAMISTS

Just a bit over two years ago, the movement called the "Egyptian Spring" rocked Egypt.  Many in the U.S. naively assumed that any revolution overthrowing Hosni Mubarak would bring in its wake democracy and freedom.  Instead, under the despotism of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt has lapsed into a dark night of extremism and religious persecution.  Whatever may be said of Mubarak, it is indisputable that Egypt's Christian minority was much more secure during his tenure.  Now, they daily undergo violence, pillage, rape and and the unimaginable horrors of Islamic persecution.

A SYRIAN MASS

Making up approximately 10% of the population, Syria's Christians number 2.2 million.  If the past may serve as an indicator for the future, it is likely that in the event of a rebel victory, the Islamists in Syria would embark upon a campaign to rid Syria of non-Muslims. And, of course, their first targets would be Christians.

Dear readers, it is sometimes difficult to believe that the Ivy Leaguers in the State Department have any idea that Christianity had existed centuries before Islam came on the scene in the region of the world that today we call the Middle East.  Or perhaps - and it is a sad possibility to ponder - it might not be a matter of not knowing but one of not caring.

LORD ROBERTS, HERO OF KANDAHAR

Having been educated in state universities (except for a couple of years at Vanderbilt),  I am often incredulous of the Ivy League products on display in Washington, most of whom seem to have no grasp of history, instead preferring to rely on the pablum of liberal ideology ingested during student days. Over the past 14 years, this type of leader has failed the United States repeatedly.

There is no better paradigm for ill-considered foreign policy than Afghanistan.  Going on more than 3,000 lost lives, 12 years expended and almost 700 billion dollars wasted, the American taxpayer has been abysmally served.  And one cannot help but wonder how many of those billions have passed through the corrupt fingers of Hamid Karzai and his network of corrupt cronies.

I also wonder, too, if George W. Bush ever considered the 20th century Russian experience in Afghanistan. Cold it be, as well, that Bush never heard of Major General Sir Frederick Roberts, who sagely remarked that foreigners entering Afghanistan begin to wear out their welcome on the first day they enter that sad and depraved land? Lord Roberts, who was celebrated for raising the siege of Kandahar during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, was of the opinion that any foreign army entering Afghanistan should as rapidly as possible accomplish its objective and then withdraw. Accordingly,  Lord Roberts' strategy represents virtually the only successful Western incursion in Afghanistan.  Oh, Will Durant, I believe you were entirely correct!

SENATOR RAND PAUL OF KENTUCKY

Of late, I have begun to hear a Republican speaking out on foreign policy who makes good sense.  Senator Rand Paul asks an incredibly simple question:  Why does the United States need to continue to involve itself in the civil wars of other countries?  How have these long-running conflicts benefited the United States?  How can we justify to the families of the fallen the sacrifices that have been made in places like Afghanistan and Iraq?

Actually, I cannot think of one American advantage that might accrue from Afghanistan - or from Iraq.  Karzai and other warlords will continue to drain their country and will show no gratitude to America.  Incredibly, after all the blood and treasure expended, the Karzai government announced recently that its first contract for  oil exploration was signed with China!  And that is the same China, dear readers, which has never shed one drop of blood or wasted one red yen on Afghanistan!  The same, I fear, holds true for Iraq, which will gradually see its Shiite leadership taking the country into the Iranian orbit.

Let us not forget, dear readers, the old aphorisms that may be applicable here.  Let's see, there was Thomas Fuller's saying, "A stitch in time saves nine."  And Benjamin Franklin was right on target when he declared, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."   Could it  be that the stitches and the ounces of prevention of botched foreign adventures might arrive from a more rigorous study of the past?  Could it be that Dr. Rand Paul (himself a physician) has a better grasp of this than the academicians who fill Ivy League departments in history, government and diplomacy?