Do you possess an ability to perceive your enemy’s thoughts? You had better. Your adversaries – whether Islamic terrorists or your garden-variety competitor – are doing everything possible to learn about your operations, your plans, your employees, and your products and services. If you’re the military, then they probably know more about your tactics and logistics then your own soldiers do. You cannot possess human intelligence without fully incorporating the human element. Each individual – whether psychopath or saint – is fully predictable based upon understanding their linear maturation model and discovering the asymmetrical influences that have shaped their lives. This talent requires being part detective and part clairvoyant. And that’s the easy task. Mere seconds may be all that lies between your life and that of your adversary. Can you adequately determine whether they will pull the trigger? Blow your cover? Sabotage your assets? Modern warfare does not permit hesitation – even for a second.

Confronting absolute evil requires absolute faith. Evil exists within our world. It is as tangible as greed, desire, passion, and, of course, hatred. Dismissing it will not make it disappear. Fearing it will not make it less frightening. Only steadfast resolve and determination can corral it – not diplomatic courtesies. Your human intelligence reports must include the startling reality that others may be inconceivable in their brutality – that they understand no bounds of human decency. Now is not the time to consider diplomatic solutions as the panacea for dealing with a world ridden with sharks. You need people who’ve spent a lifetime understanding others; people who can shed the expected and consider alternate realities of people, places, and events you would never imagine within your wildest nightmares. Let’s face it; the Western intelligence community is fraught with people conditioned to think and act along pre-conceived lines of education, training, and background screening, the result of which are people who are predicable and close-minded. Your enemies have to adapt in order to survival. You, however, cannot rely upon historical or educational biases; you must already be at the intersection regardless of what road your adversary is approaching from.