THE old saying "history repeats" has never been so true as today. Mussolini's son was to say how happy he was to bomb defenceless Ethiopian tribesmen. Then we know how the Luftwaffe passed their final operational training supporting the Fascist France in the Spanish Civil War. Hitler justified tearing Czechoslovakia apart by first being allowed to seize the western province of Sudietenland, with its mainly ethnic German population and then grabbing the rest of the country.

Even the call by the Soviet Union not to give way to the Nazis at Munich (which would have prevented World War Two) was ignored.

Now we have the continual bombing of the Lebanon and Iraq by the Anglo-American

-Israeli axis. The ripping apart of the rest of Yugoslavia with the excuse of peacekeeping is all too similar. One has to look hard to find even a mention in the press that the Russian Duma voted almost unanimously to defend Serbia if NATO illegally start bombing.

How many people realise that the CIA boasted to American Congressmen how successful they were in organising and arming renegade small groups to bring down legitimate governments not approved of?

Lest we forget and find ourselves in unspeakable bloodletting we must think carefully before we leap. What can we do about it? Call at the Wood Street Socialist Club any Friday evening for a warm welcome, to find out.

Bertie Lewis

Taunton Drive, Farnworth

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.