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What complicates this issue is how Bush constantly makes references to morality, using ideas of "good" and "evil," yet there is a moral dilemma here.
Causing pain and misery is evil. This is why war is always a barbaric act, you must commit evils no matter whose side you're on. But there are varying degrees of severity, of course.
Upholding a humane standard of conduct in these affairs is a work in progress that is hundreds of years old. What the American government is doing is undermining these standards.
Causing suffering to possibly save lives is a deplorable practice. And can we please avoid resorting to the "what if it were you" "arguments"? If it were you, it doesn't change anything; it's still wrong.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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