History matters, except to politicians.

Losing a couple of world wars has not changed the view of important German politicians concerning their ability to push around their former adversary, Great Britain. It seems that British voters have taken the opportunity of a referendum—you know, the process by which voters get to say what they really, really think about an issue—to leave Germany and its fellow members of the European Union in favor of the broad sunlit uplands of a less regulated economic future. But in a reversal of the roles played at Versailles almost a century ago, Germany is demanding reparations. Or alimony.