Bears repeating….over and over and over again until enough people get it:

The Gutless Pacifist: How Much is Too Much… For Other People?

If we are naieve enough to believe that war is actually about saving people, how many murders of the people we are obstenibly trying to save are acceptable in order to save them? And of course, this question is couched in the understanding that this only applies to people other than ourselves. I mean, it would naturally be totally unacceptable to have yourself or your family murdered in order to “protect” your nation, be it your domestic police (eg: London) or an invading army (eg: the atomic bombings of Japan).

Of course, the latter part I have used in many an argument, and rarely does anybody ever consider that this is exactly the way they “omit” from their circle of reasoning. Do unto others AS YOU WOULD HAVE them do unto you. Not that hard to understand, but seemingly very diffcult to get through some very stubborn filters of assumptions we’ve assimilated from the world.

As long as it’s some “other” group of people, preferrably in some OTHER country, and on some OTHER continent, then it makes “perfect sense”. Well of course they’re expendable. Go for it.