To Beat the Enemy, We Must Understand Him

Beat Your Enemy by Knowing Him

Military genius Sun Tzu said:

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

In other words, you'll win every battle if you know your enemy's strengths, weaknesses and tactics in addition to your own. If you don't understand your enemy, you will win half of the time or less.

Improving our odds by at least 50% is worth it, right? So we should strive to learn as much as possible about those defending the official version of 9/11, in order to beat them in the struggle for truth.

Laugh at the Enemy

A prominent 9/11 activist, who has himself been harassed, intimidated and threatened by people trying to stop his 9/11 activism, sent me the following message:

"I came across a quote from a respected friend and author who has since passed on -- who said,

'Remember this simple principle: Behavior that receives attention is behavior that is strengthened.'

This is what these guys do -- they seek ATTENTION, and when they get it, they seek more of it by doing more of what they have done to get attention.

So my attention rather will be directed towards those who are doing some GOOD for the 9/11 Truth movement, by challenging the official story and by doing solid research and writing. If I am threatened with violence (for example), I plan to report that to the police rather than making the threats public.

By ignoring their rants, we stop feeding them. And if they actually do something worthwhile for 9/11 truth -- we should give credit (attention), hard as that may seem, so they will do more worthwhile activities".

The original Star Trek show had an episode where a malevolent creature fed off of negative energy. The humans and the Klingons -- being long-time enemies -- hated each other, and so the critter got more and more powerful. Finally, Spock figured out that, in order to defeat the creature, everyone had to stop feeding the negativity -- they literally laughed at the thing, which deprived it of energy, and so it left them alone.

No, I'm not a trekkie. But the episode captured -- in a graphic manner -- what the 9/11 activist was saying.

Sympathy for the Devil

Therefore, from a strictly selfish perspective of doing what is best for ourselves, we might want to have enough sympathy for our enemies to:

· Know their strengths, weaknesses, and fighting styles, to help improve our odds of beating them

· Step out of the endless cycle of negative, hostile, attack-and-counter-attacks, and laugh at our enemy, ourselves, and the situation we're in. Because, by making light of the whole thing, we are more likely to be left alone by the "bad guys"

Should We All Sit Around and Sing Kumbaya?

I'm not advocating that we give up our strength, energy, brains or commitment to promote 9/11 truth and to obtain justice against all of those who carried out the 9/11 attack. I'm not suggesting we become vegetarian and start singing "Kumbaya".

I'm suggesting that we fight as hard as we can for 9/11 truth and justice with total commitment (because this is a fight so important that we cannot and must not lose) and at the same time try to do it in such a way that we are working more or less positively and with a bit of understanding and humor.

What Do the Martial Arts Masters Say?

This is, admittedly, a tough paradox to resolve. It is easy to fight. Or it is easy to sit on the couch and stare at one's navel. It is very difficult to integrate these opposites and fight while maintaining a sense of stillness.

But that's exactly what the world's best martial artists do. Bruce Lee wrote extensively about the paradox of movement and stillness, of combat and peace, of doing and being. Morihei Ueshiba, who mastered several martial arts styles and then invented the martial art of Aikido, said that one of the keys to successful fighting was "stillness within movement." Other top martial artists have said the same thing. These folks were winners who excelled at kicking butt, and I would argue their wisdom is worth listening to.

What does that have to do with understanding our enemy? Well, we can't truly see our enemy unless we are still enough and unless we dial back our hatred of the enemy long enough to see him. If we are so caught up in the fight itself and in our hatred of the bad guy that we lose our ability to see straight, then we will just be flailing against our own ideas about who the enemy is, our own shadow, our own projection. If we do that, we will lose.

By the way, I have not always applied these principles myself, and I apologize to those who I have treated as enemies without seeing who they really were as individuals.