I can’t predict where it’s going to fit my moral convictions any better than you can. I’d like to think I have a good baseline when it comes to recognizing human value and potential ability for harm vs potential to change. I’d like to fight our fights in a clean “good vs evil” framework. I don’t like I’d be okay with “fuck ‘em all, they’re irredeemable bastards”. They are still people, and even if they’re fully committed to their cause, however wrong i might think they are, they’re still human.

That hesitation you have, that recognition that they have a choice over their actions when they wake up and kill kids because they chose to follow orders for whatever reason they do, even if they as an individual question it? Yeah, that’s real, you can spend the rest of your life debating in your head “were they brainwashed” vs “were they redeemable” vs “maybe”’ vs “I halted harm” vs “why did I chose to prevent it with the level of prevention I did” vs “you gave me know choice but to end your existence”. If you end up living and they don’t because of your actions, that will be your burden to bear.

The idea you could drop a big bomb is pleasant. It’s impersonal and wipes a threat without the nitty gritty. Sometimes that happens, a lot of times it doesn’t. If you want to commit to the cause you say you believe in, to put yourself between the most vulnerable and those who would eradicate them, it’s going to get ugly. You don’t get to pick your enemies, they aren’t always who you’d like them to be. Nobody who cares emerges “clean” nor walks out feeling justified.