>> In the meantime, I don't want to empathize with the
enemy, I want to defeat them. I know it's contrarian, but so
what? Sales of the Koran skyrocketed after 9/11, which tells
me that there are plenty of people willing to empathize with
the enemy, learn what load of horseshit loosed a
psychopathic god (to mangle Auden) and so on.
Irene: And/or some people want to know what it is they want
to defeat. . . . So, yes, in perfect keeping with American
stupidity, Eric wants to defeat the enemy by wishful
thinking, by knowing nothing about them.
Nonsense. We know their strategy and tactics. That's
sufficient and has been sufficient historically. Not many
Americans read _Mein Kampf_ or studied up on Shinto during
World War II. Instead, we broke the German and Japanese
codes, studied their military strategy and tactics, analyzed
their weak points, and brought them down, while remaining
largely ignorant of Wagnerian apocalypse or tea ceremony. As
for "American stupidity," I think you are a far better
exemplar than I am.
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