Tao Te Ching 69

There is no great misfortune than underestimating your enemy. Underestimating your enemy means thinking that he is evil. Thus you destroy your three treasures and become an enemy yourself.
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Underestimating an enemy will make us ineffective in fighting that enemy. If we do not understand his motivation and intention and his view of what threatens him, then we do not understand how to proceed. That’s not to say that we must agree with his motivation, intention or views. But we must understand them so that we avoid underestimating him and his strength, direction and objectives.

We cannot determine that an enemy is evil without first determining that we are righteous. We must understand that our self righteousness is seen as evil by our enemy and thus we become his enemy and he underestimates us in one fell swoop.

In this dance of evil enemies we are both made poor through the loss of our three treasures – simplicity, patience and compassion. Death and destruction result, and the seeds of the next encounter with evil are planted.