Great minds run in the same channels - as I was thinking of the Chinese Sun guy:

Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle.
—Sun Tzu
before I got to the last sentence of this:

from graphei
What happened to reading Sun Tzu's Art of War and knowing your enemy?
Perhaps, more people should invest some time in the Al Qaeda Reader ?

I wouldn't be in too much hurry to rush off to war, especially this one. It will be around for a long time. And, there is always room for "scholarly" Marine officers (even though they won't admit to that - hey, PBear ). One of them (Sam Griffith) gave me and others basic introductions to Sun and Mao with his translations from the early 60s.

Regards

Mike