Misunderstanding the nature of evil is to risk being blindsided by it, Rosenberg reminds us on this anniversary of Pearl Harbor

This message by Joel C. Rosenberg, founder and editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS, from 2016, is still as relevant – and prescient – today as it was then.

The central theme that I write about is this: To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it. Americans, we've been hit many times in our history, unfortunately, or certainly several specific times by an evil we didn't understand. We think of Pearl Harbor December 7th, 1941.

When you look back at the intelligence that the American government had, we actually... there was a sense that something was coming and might even be targeting the Hawaiian Islands. But we didn't put it all together in time. We didn't understand. We didn't even believe really that that was possible.

The data that we had didn't seem to correspond with our understanding of what was possible or what was in the minds of our enemies, Imperial Japan. And of course, that led to the most horrific sneak attack on the United States in history to that moment.

And this is the idea that an attack can come without warning. At least that's the way it's perceived when the attack happens. But the challenge for leaders and for our government, for our intelligence community, for our military and for our civilian commanders, those leaders that oversee the military and intelligence is to make sure we're doing everything we can to understand the intention of our enemies and not rule out what we think they're incapable of doing. To understand who they are means to understand what they might try to do and to make sure we're doing everything we can to protect ourselves.

And sadly, tragically, Pearl Harbor is a terrible example, a painful example of being blindsided by an evil we just simply did not understand.