According to the world of Mr. History Spinner, everyone of importance is a liar except him. He somehow has the corner on truth along with my ten-year-old son.

Mr. Spinner poses as the most significant person in history with the cure for the world's ills. If we all follow this self-appointed pied piper, he promises a world of peace and justice. Safely removed from the complexities, he simplifies history into the faddish fantasy that has become a cliché.

It would be nice, if we could, as Mr. Spinner proposes, join the people around the world in the common cause of peace and justice.

If only words were all it took! The former Soviet Union's secret police used to refer to such naïve people in the West as "useful idiots."

Neville Chamberlain was one for giving away the freedom of nations, not his own, to join a Socialist Leader with a great vision in the common cause of peace and justice.

Instead of stopping a small insignificant nation in its tracks, when the world had a chance, the world powers chose the popular cause of peace on paper.

Eventually, the common cause of peace led to the greatest catastrophe the world of men ever knew.

Historical perspective is important. As Winston Churchill pointed out, "the further back I look; the further forward I can see." However, I'd like to point out that slanting history to fit an agenda is a means to expand the ego and an enemy of truth and peace.

The common cause of peace and justice is rare in the human race and complicated. It is not white and black or brown and red.

Presenting history as a simplified blame game only encourages the continuation of more agitation.

Understanding all sides of conflict can help us understand and resolve conflict, hopefully in a peaceful manner, but if not, with properly applied force.

Historians should be required to read Nausea by Sartre. The historian in the story researches various perspectives of an historical figure. The deeper he investigates, the more contradictory and complex the evidence becomes and the less he really understands his subject. As a result, he realizes history was a means to a deeper understanding and appreciation of his place in the world. History was not a means to project himself onto history.