It's not good when people are still upset over perceived slights that happened 5+ RL years ago. Most players in the game haven't been here that long, so basing your foreign policy on events that old is just going to upset and confuse them.
I agree to an extent.
In terms of foreign policy, usually it evolves itsself quickly enough to change within less than 5+ RL years many times.
In case of Sirion, well, it might be an exception, since Sirion was always put into the one defensive RP by its enemies, so I can understand them there.
It will be interesting to see what they do after they have achieved their goals...
In terms of personal RP, I believe that you need to remember everything you have RPed and abide by it.
You can't change your personal RP just because a newer player wasn't there to read it...10 others still were.