Decius wrote:
] It is wrong to show our children in high school the kind of
] indifference you'd project toward an enemy in war. These
] people are not your enemy; they are your responsibility.

I don't know who suggested to you that it is a good idea to project indifference toward your enemy in war. Regardless, this is not consistent with the general advice on the matter.

In fact, as was posted here on January 22, 2004, in an entry entitled "Eleven Lessons from Robert McNamara", you'll find that Lesson Number One is

    EMPATHIZE WITH YOUR ENEMY

McNamara goes on at some length about this, both in the Errol Morris documentary "The Fog of War" (also recommended here) and in his memoirs, "In Retrospect."

And more than a few scholars and commentators have explained that Sun Tzu's Lesson Number One is basically the same thing. Here are two: an article entitled "On the pedagogy of 'small wars'", published in International Affairs, volume 80, number 1 (January 2004). This is a respected journal in the field. Here, the author says that "'Knowing thy enemy' and 'knowing thyself', Sun Tzu's formula for victory, requires abandoning flattering accounts of western identity and learning to empathize with those we call terrorists."

Also, the point is made explicitly in an article entitled "Bush and the Art of War", published by Intervention Magazine (with which I have no prior experience) in August 2004. Its recent articles seem to present it as a Blue magazine, although they claim to be "an ideologically eclectic group transcending the old liberal/conservative divide." According to the web site, its original Advisory Board included Peter Arnett, Daniel Ellsberg, and Studs Terkel, among others.

RE: Why Nerds are Unpopular (Long, and worth it.)