The U.S. Military, al-Qaeda, and a War of Futility


By Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com
January 14, 2010


In his book on World War II in the Pacific, War Without Mercy, John Dower tells an extraordinary tale about the changing American image of the Japanese fighting man. In the period before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, it was well accepted in military and political circles that the Japanese were inferior fighters on the land, in the air, and at sea -- “little men,â€