And you are making it for the same reason: Ideological intransigence. There are no shades of gray in your black and white universe. You are just like THEM.

You believe that just because our side does ugly things, we never do any good things, and the other side is incapable of any ugliness of its own. That's not the way the world works. It's only the exact mirror image of what conservative ideologues think, and they are just as wrong as you are. We cannot afford that kind of exceptionalistic arrogance any more. We can do better, that's what makes us better than they are. But sooner or later, we have to pick a side and fight.

It is our duty as human beings and citizens to try to see our opponent's point of view as best we can, and to accomdate it if we can and if it is reasonable, and also to be ready to criticize our side when it overreaches or acts unfairly or selfishly. That is how I interpret Liberalism, and it is my major criticism of Conservative jingoism in foreign affairs.

But we also have the right of self-defense, especially against those who use deliberate brutality (terrorism) against us. And if that means dropping an occasional bomb into a wedding or barbecue, then so be it. As long as we do so because we have legitimate reason to believe the Beast is hiding there.

Collateral damage is what war is all about. Most casualties in all wars are innocents, once we decide to fight we are going to have to accept that. We can do our best to fight fair, in fact, that's always a good strategy, for purely practical reasons. After all, when the Nazis realized it was time to surrender, they scurried West, not East. And it must be admitted, Germany was not treated fairly at Versailles by the Allies. She was maliciously screwed. It doesn't excuse Hitler, but it sure as hell explains him.

But war is the only response we have when someone decides we are the only cause of their problems, and anything they do is justified by god.

We did not have to fight the Mexican War, in fact we were the aggressors. We were clearly the aggressors in the Spanish-American War, Vietnam, and Iraq II. We had every reason to fight in WWII, Korea, Iraq I and Afghanistan. I still can't imagine why we (or anyone else, for that matter) got involved in WWI.

Sometimes, we just have to pick sides, even if we don't have god on our side.