Why is our capacity to learn so limited?

I’ve spent the morning going over the 1999 Report of the UN Secretary General on the Fall of Srebrenica.

I found it depressing when I first read it years ago, but re-reading it now in the context of writing my chapter on the passage of UN Res. 1706 (a.k.a. the “invites the consent” resolution) is nothing short of painful. My heart goes out to the poor sod at the UN who is, in the near future, no doubt going to be tasked with writing the same kind of “lessons learned” report on peacekeeping in Darfur – – knowing that after it is published to great acclaim, nothing will really change.