Posted on 03/05/08
Handle your past with care
THE USES AND ABUSESOF HISTORYBy Margaret MacMillanViking Canada,194 pages, $30In recent years, as their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have foundered, George Bush Jr. and Tony Blair have turned to future historians for vindication. As Blair put it, "I am confident history will forgive." It's a good way to avoid awkward questions, of course, but there is also the implication that these imaginary friends are bound to see things as they do. Given enough time - and air strikes - the "war on terror" will take its rightful place alongside the other virtuous Anglo-American wars they repeatedly cite as precedents. Both men surely dream of being anointed another Churchill.
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