> are still a proxy for potentially useful skills. This is tautological. It's a good measure because it's a good (proxy) measure. This is not a truism, stated

> are still a proxy for potentially useful skills. This is tautological. It's a good measure because it's a good (proxy) measure. This is not a truism, stated this way. > In other words, some of the enemies might have had comparable academic qualifications had they grown up in the US. Maybe they would have all been geniuses. This is a wild guess about what intelligence/behavior results in superior combat troops, on average.