What is it about American academics and their inability to recognize evil?

Augustus Richard Norton was one of the experts relied on by the Baker-Hamilton Commission and who gives us a rather different look at the Iranian backed terrorist group Hezb'allah. Evidently, their dedication to violence and the destruction of Israel proved too much for the poor anthropology professor's weak constitution to highlight. Instead, he gives them a pass:

Norton cites one of Hizbullah's founding documents, which states that every Hizbullah fighter "is a combat soldier when the call of jihad demands it." He acknowledges that the "ultimate objective [for Hizbullah] is to destroy Israel," but when he discusses Hizbullah violence against Israel, that violence is described as "resistance." He writes admiringly of Hizbullah's "careful planning and well-practiced professionalism," and has the audacity to state that Hizbullah "usually" did not "intentionally target Israeli civilians." This seems to imply that the occasional Katyusha barrage on Israel's northern towns was acceptable. Moreover, he lauds Hizbullah restraint for killing only nine Israeli soldiers during the "six years of relative stability" from 2000 to 2006.