aug 07
The first installment of this analysis will focus on knowing the enemy. Why the enemy fights dictates how he fights, so understanding his motivations provides context for his methods and clues to his tenacity. Cataloging the enemy's strengths and weaknesses likewise enables us to develop strategies that circumvent the former and exploit the latter.
Unfortunately, Sun Tzu would not be pleased with the performance of America and its allies in this regard.
The West has been hampered by a festering and self-inflicted wound: a reluctance to identify its foe as the totalitarian, Islamic-based ideology that it is. Instead, our elites call forth a politically correct haze to shroud the jihadist elephant in the room ...
Unfortunately, poor knowledge of the enemy represents only the beginning of Western troubles. More perilous is our deteriorating sense of ourselves -- of our civilization's unique character and what we have to defend. These issues will be tackled in the second half of this analysis as we examine the role of self-knowledge in the Long War and consider prospects for energizing the home front.
