Stardate 20020209.1815

(On Screen): Secretary Rumsfeld cited the experience of the Wehrmacht in an interview, and Lia is apparently scandalized.

Actually, it's usual for militaries to study the experiences of all sides in war. The fact that a given military is commanded by scum doesn't mean that everything that military does is useless. There is no question that the Nazis were beneath contempt. It is equally true that the Wehrmacht was one of the most tough military nuts to crack that our armed forces have ever faced, and it's worth learning why.

The standard .50 caliber heavy machine gun used by the US army now is a modified form of the machine gun that the Wehrmacht used in WWII. The Americans had their own design, but it wasn't as good.

Blitzkrieg was studied by the British, Russians and Americans almost immediately after they saw it first used, and those tactics were used by the Russians against the Germans at Kursk, and by the Americans after the Cobra breakout in France.

And famously, our ballistic missile program got its start with recruited German engineers and scientists who had been working on the V2.

During war you study what your opponent did so as to learn how to counter it the next time he tries to use it, and maybe even so you can do the same to him. After the war you study what he did so as to learn whether and how you can improve your own. And when two other nations fight, you study what they both did and see what worked and what didn't.

To do otherwise would be a sin against your own soldiers, who deserve the best weapons and tactics you can afford to give them.