You can't fight a good fight with such a defeatist attitude.

But I also think that the phenomenal success of Swensen and others like him reflects the environment that Kiyosaki criticizes. The problem is a defeatist attitude, not scholarship.

But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

However, far from adopting a defeatist attitude, the Saharan people, being convinced of the rightness of their cause and the legitimacy of their struggle, had achieved in the camps what they had not achieved in Western Sahara.

To say that, over time, other bodies, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the specialized agencies, have usurped the powers and role of the Economic and Social Council is a defeatist attitude.

Israel s annexationist right would dismiss its defeatist detractors with the claim that the entire Zionist enterprise was an unrealistic dream that miraculously came true. In fact, Israel materialized because historical and political conditions favored it, and because Zionist diplomacy successfully navigated the international relations challenges that it encountered.

Taking an enemy by surprise confers a significant tactical advantage in war, and the invasion inflicted an immense psychological and political shock on India that greatly magnified the initial military advances that China achieved. China s blitzkrieg created a defeatist mindset in India, forcing its army to retreat to defensive positions.

Yet at the recent NATO summit in Budapest, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on NATO members to provide more troops for missions in Afghanistan. He accused the British of being defeatist and argued that Afghanistan s deteriorating security situation could be addressed with an Iraq style surge, which has undoubtedly brought down violence levels in that country.