Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Perhaps the ultimate human drama.
Unfortunately observers too easily expect actual human drama to adhere to the dramatic conventions established in works of fiction. It's sunk in our minds that the guys in the white hats fight fair and do right, and it bothers us when they don't live up to standard.

Should the new government seek out and string up the young man who in the heat of the moment perforated the ex dictator... which thousands of others would have done if they'd been in his shoes? Maybe justice - and the desire to live up to the conventions of those who weren't there - would be satisfied if they did. I'm personally not sure it's called for.

Any time a violent domestic conflict ends there's a debate between justice and reconciliation. At some point you have to draw distinctions between people (on both sides) who deliberately organized, ordered, or participated in planned atrocities and barely trained, unsupervised guys who simply pulled a trigger in the heat of a jacked-up moment.

Some very ugly stuff happened and much of it will go unpunished. That may suck, but it's a reality.