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We will always be confronted with things that won't fit into our worldview - I started as a staunch conservative early in life, mostly in following my parents, who had seen war in Europe and had come to Canada to build a better life afterward. For them, World War II was a just war, even though my grandfather was lost fighting for the Wehrmacht as a Private in 1942. Did my grandfather think that he was an evil man because he fought for Germany and Hitler? Probably not, though I never got to talk to him about it.

University life exposed me to the other side and sparked a more critical thought process. I didn't see so much black and white, good and evil as I did shades of gray and nationalist motives. I began to question; I began to play the oh-so-easy Canadian pastime of "Bash the Americans." Let's be frank here: it's easy to do because it's always easy to bash the leaders in any field - the microscope is ALWAYS on them and any misstep is recorded for posterity to be trotted out on display later at Starbucks over expensive venti lattes.

What brought me back to the other side away from my "enlightenment?" Simple pragmatism. The fact that I started to believe in a world where there were no absolutes, that supposedly no one was inherently good or evil, that God may or may not [heresy!] exist and that maybe there was no such thing as "my destined path"...heady stuff from the alcohol-soaked mind of an unemployed 22-year old.

What became important to me were the facts and not the all-emcompassing garbage statement of "It's all the AMERICAN's fault!" Someone's actual actions became more important to me in judging that person than what someone else said about them...It's conceptually impossible for EVERYTHING in the world to be America's fault, so by taking that position and ignoring the other factors involved, the "Peace" protesters are being intellectually LAZY.

For many years it was believed as a fact that any war fought in the 20th century would spiral out of control and result in the extermination of us all because neither of the two Superpowers would back down and escalation was guaranteed. This belief still survives in many of us today in its simplistic form of "War is Bad" and should "never be fought for any reason."

The truth is that the facts have changed in the 21st century. This isn't Star Trek. There isn't some stupid Prime Directive. The Americans are running the only Superpower on the planet. There are many that will hold America responsible in this century for their INACTIONS as much as their ACTIONS. The responsibility of attempting the greatest good for the greatest number of people will produce results such as Ali Ismaeel Abbas - that's almost guaranteed.

The challenge will be to see Abbas as part of the bigger picture: How many Abbas will be prevented because Saddam will no longer be there to torture Iraqis? We may never be able to know - and part of the challenge will be not to lose our humanity when dealing with the choices presented by the numbers: no one can possibly say it was fair to Ali Ismaeel Abbas, but is he enough to condemn this war as an immoral action? Or would the victims of Saddam be enough to condemn the U.S. for immoral INACTION had they not stopped him?

With Power comes Responsibility and Accountability.

So what am I now? If pragmatism were a political belief system I would define myself as a Pragmatist.

When the facts change I change my mind. What do you do?
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