The Invincible Barbarian Hordes

Ancient texts tell of the fall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of an army of immortal, inhuman warriors. The evil hordes were summoned by the gods to overthrow the kingdom and establish a new order. These otherworldly, demonic beasts were called variously the Umman-Manda, or the Gutians.
Many Biblical scholars have noted that the way the Bible describes the Amorites and various other groups appears similar to the use of these terrifying beasts in the Akkadian myths. They argue that in books like Deuteronomy and Joshua, which have many features of military writing, it would be culturally appropriate to find ”propaganda” decrying Israel’s enemies as inhuman savages. Therefore, the mention of giants (Rephaim) in Scripture is meant to be understood as nothing more than military trash-talking, and the giants were just ordinary men who happened to be on the wrong side of the fight. Dehumanising the enemy is a way of ensuring that popular opinion stays on your side, based on fear of the other.
But people who hold such a view of the Bible need to ask the questions raised by this position.
If the invading hordes of beastly warriors are driving out the native inhabitants of the land, doesn't the Conquest account place Israel in the position of being the monsters rather than the good guys?
If the Amorites were so evil, why don't the Akkadian legends include them among the demonic invaders?
Is it ok for people (especially God's chosen people, and even more so, the Biblical writers) to dehumanise other people made in God's image?
How are we to account for the gigantic proportions of certain characters in the Biblical narrative if they were not really that big?
And perhaps most importantly, does portraying an enemy as an evil supernatural hybrid lend any justification to the Conquest of Canaan? What other possibility is there that makes the eradication of the Anakim and other giant clans acceptable?

The simple answer is that this model of interpretation does not align at all with what Scripture presents. Jesus teaches us not to dehumanise our enemies but to love them; to view them as equals or even treat them better than ourselves.
Matthew 5:44-45a "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven."
Mark 12:31b "Love your neighbour as yourself."
Matthew 5:41 "If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles."
Further, when we acknowledge that the "propaganda" interpretation of the giant clans doesn't hold water because you have to turn the good guys into bad guys to make it work, we are forced to recognise that the giants were not just ordinary men playing for the other team. The descriptions of great size and strength, along with the depraved religion that they practiced, make it clear to us that these were evil people with an intrinsic connection to forces oppositional to God and humankind - a connection that had corrupted their nature so deeply that they had wilfully forgone the capacity to represent Yahweh Elohim in either form or function.
The first Nephilim were removed with a flood. The latter giants were removed with a military campaign. In ancient literature, both judgments were often described with the same language. The Conquest served a similar purpose to the Flood in that respect; it was a restoration of order by means of devastation. In that respect alone, the fearsome Umman-Manda's invasion of Akkad did have something in common with the Israelite Conquest. The Most High had decreed an end to the old civilisation, and the commencement of a new one, bringing with it a restoration of divine order.
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- T.J. Steadman