Reply #32: I don't think Bush's salient characteristic is hist. amnesia. [View All]

Its more like the opposite, he is stuck in the past, and unable to adapt to changing circumstances.

He is surrounded by cold-warriors, who want the cold-war back. Condi Rice is an expert on the USSR, a country that no longer exists. They insist that the gravest threat is "state-sponsored terrorism", and refuse to see that a terror organization with no state support can in fact harm us. He is fighting his father's war.

If anything, there is some strong appreciation for and use of historical knowledge in the Bush admin. Read about Rove. he is actually a history buff. He makes references to the nazis, he knows full well he is using their tactics, he has learned his history well.
(Warning, in any speach or paper, avoid the N-word (nazi), do not use the "we have forgotten the lesson of the rise of nazism" or anything like that, it is way way too incendiary an example.)