The right-wing paramilitary's offensive against the Marxist guerrillas failed because they did not know the terrain well enough.

In pseudohypertrophic paralysis, the muscles are apparently enlarged, but are really degenerated and replaced by fat.

[…] from the pyramids and the catacombs of Egypt both mummied and unmummied crania have been taken, of still higher antiquity, in perfect preservation; […]

So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly inreconcilable truths -- that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly.