Let’s have our hindsight now

I AGREE with Ray Takeyh’s assertion that “the foremost lesson of history is that history does not repeat itself in the exact same manner at every junction’’ (“Vietnam’s lesson for Afghanistan,’’ Op-ed, Nov. 12). However, there are times when it comes mighty close. For example, it took Defense Secretary Robert McNamara more than 25 years to finally admit that the rationale, decisions, and policies that led to the initiation and carrying out of the Vietnam War were all dead wrong. The way I figure it, it will take Donald Rumsfeld et al. about that long to admit the same in regard to Afghanistan and Iraq.