Bush cries as he thanks the troops *Disturbing Pic*, page 3

This post is going to make people on both the left and right get annoyed with me, but I feel compelled to say it anyway.

I'm staunchly opposed to the war - and indeed, any war - and I have always felt that there is a detachment of empathy that must occur in order for a person to allow themselves to take a life, or order the taking of lives. That detachment may be something they are trained to undergo, something that happens in the heat of battle through fear or the desire to survive, it can be cultivated through hate, or it can be something that one willfully rationalizes into being in order to achieve an objective they feel, for better or worse, is necessary or desirable.

This happens to varying degrees (someone like Adolf Eichmann being an extreme example for instance) and the actions this detachment permits are, for me, indefensible. Nonetheless, this does not necessarily invalidate the individual's humanity or capacity for emotion. Does anyone believe Hitler never shed a tear in his life that was genuine?

I say this because I feel it is extremely easy to fall into a trap that is the inverse of the detachment from empathy. That is to say that we can easily trade their detachment from empathy for the cultivation of our own hatred of, or inability to have compassion for, the person undergoing the detachment. Human beings aren't black and white. There is more complexity involved in being human than simply being either willing or unwilling to take lives. I am unwilling to kill, and my deepest desire is for people to be healthy, happy, and fulfilled. I sound like a fairly nice person, right? Does that mean I've never gotten angry in my life, or gotten into a fight with someone? Yes, there is a line that I will never cross, but I cannot judge others - or, certainly not justly - for crossing that line, when I am incapable of even comprehending how one could ever do so.

My position is that if I become incapable of having compassion and empathy for even those who represent what I most vehemently disagree with, I have then crossed an opposite line that is just as dangerous. It allows me to paint others with broad, black or white strokes, rather than taking into account the whole of who they are as a person. That's something I never want to do, and something I'm dead set on striving to avoid.

I believe war is wrong, and I am heartbroken by the conflict presently raging. I disagree with – and even fear, frankly – many of the changes to our laws and way of life that have been sought by the present administration (though I believe ultimately the issue has nothing to do with political party and that other forces are at work.) Nonetheless, I will not invalidate someone's humanity, because for me that would simply be another kind of violence. I feel it is hypocritical to be opposed to violence on one hand, yet reinforce and even exacerbate the divisions that exist between differing ideologies on the other. It's possible it's a PR stunt. It's possible it's real. I will refrain from judgment.