I've often said that if you're in a culture war against a pride/shame-based culture, the way to defeat it is to shame it every chance you get. As usual, Victor Davis Hanson says what I'm thinking, but says it much better (even though it's not really the main thrust of the essay):
"Apart from the model of our forefathers who crushed and then lifted up the Germans and Japanese, we could find no better guide in this war than William Tecumseh Sherman and Abraham Lincoln — in that order. The former would remind us that our enemies traffic in pride and thus first must be disabused of it through defeat and humiliation. The latter (who turned Sherman and Grant lose [sic]) would maintain that we are a forgiving sort, who prefer restored rather than beaten people as our friends."Posted by Chris at January 18, 2004 08:12 PM