A CONTEMPORARY LESSON FROM THE HOLOCAUST: Recalling the Holocaust and Adolph Hitler (Y'mach Shmo) drives home a point made by Sigmund, Carl and Alfred--the blog, not the psychiatrists:

An enemy is someone with whom we, as individuals and as a community, have fundamental differences. An enemy has values and beliefs, that are very different than out own. An enemy wants to deprive us of our beliefs and values, because that enemy finds our beliefs repulsive or threatening to their own. Enemies will fight to the death, should they choose to engage us or we choose to engage them.

There are people who believe that enemies are opponents- that is, they can reasoned with and rationalized with and common ground can be had. Believing that an enemy can be an opponent is what led much of Europe to appease Hitler, in the beginning. Herr Hitler, it was believed, was after all a European. Surely he could be reasoned with. Surely he would respond to the rational idea that war was catastrophic. [emphasis added]

It is a distinction that needs to be made and emphasized in the war on terror--
both the US and Israel's.
[Hat tip: Larwyn]

Technorati Tag: Holocaust and War On Terror and Islamists.