There were so many tragedies wrapped into this overall catastrophe,

the catastrophe of course being unleashed against the people of Gaza by Israel,

that it is difficult to know where to start, but here's one, and it's been nagging at me,

it's the absolute crushing certainty that not only will this human catastrophe kill so many

innocent people, unmain and traumatise so many more, but that it will fail on its own terms.

How do we know this? Well, for a start of history. Now history's not a perfect guide,

it is the only real guide that we have. The tragedy about the cliche,

those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,

is that it's obviously being said enough to achieve cliche status,

without its actual lesson being absorbed. Now this week, I was on television with Liam Fox,

a conservative MP, who backs every single catastrophic military intervention,

and indeed was defence secretary during the war in Libya. Let me, let's hear me put that

to it. I have to say this, let's just be pretty honest. People like yourself brought

us Afghanistan, you said anyone who criticised what the occupation that went on for two decades

were Taliban studies, and we ended up with a Taliban strong with the never. The same with Iraq,

we were told we were studies, the salami saying we had the blood in chaos and hundreds of

thousands of people and Islam, Islamist extremism on the rampage, you gave us Libya, we got a

failed state. Are you going to see anything about Gaza or are we just going to get this

all? No, no, it's not teenage history to use historical precedent to point out that every

single time we have been told the military onslaughts are necessary, they end in a greater

catastrophe, and there was no basis for capture and urgency programmes exceeding in this way.

On all substance whatsoever, what would you say? Well, you don't like your record being

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