[Fipherion]

As with any saying like this, there are elements of truth but it is not completely true. The fact is that we live in a dynamic world and, while there are similarities, we cannot always apply yesterday's reasonings to today's situations. Another saying that is applicable here is "hindsight is 20-20." We can always look back into history and say "oh, if only we had done this, it would have been better" but there is a major problem. We do not have absolute knowlege of all possible outcomes. It is a mistake to say "this was bad, if we hadn't done that, then it wouldn't have happened" because who's to say that the world would be in better shape if a different decision had been made?

When a decision is made, there are two outcomes: it turns out to have good results of bad results. However, once the actions are taken, it is absolutely, 100% impossible to know what would have happened if the decision was different.

When history "repeats itself" its mainly because history is so freaking huge! So much stuff has happened so the likelihood of something happening that hasn't happened before in a broad sense is very slim. If you make a decision and it turns out like something from the past you can say "oh man, he hsould have paid attention to history, he would have known that would have happened" but we have no idea that whatever the other result may have been would have been any better. If he had chosen otherwise, chances are history would have seen another similar result and the cycle continues.