That's a very interesting dualism you raise. "If you feel this war is immoral" but you don't specify why it should be immoral - maybe waged under false pretense

That's a very interesting dualism you raise. "If you feel this war is immoral" but you don't specify why it should be immoral - maybe waged under false pretenses would be one? In contrast you do give a reason why the war could be moral - it was a war of liberation, to liberate the people of Iraq from a bloody dictator. The dualism you raise is interesting because the war itself is not immoral, it is how you judge the intentions of those who went to war that is what is moral or immoral. Another topic on HackerNews a little while ago asked what would our grandchildren find abhorrent about how we conduct ourselves nowadays. I bet you can see where this is going. Imagine all throughout history we thought slavery and human sacrifice was an okay way to conduct ourselves. What if someday our grandchildren's grandchildren come to believe that all war is immoral in and of itself or possibly say that an army should only be used for emergencies and defense. I'm not advocating this mind-set, I'm just creating a thought experiment that tries to {bracket} the dualism. One more (to my mind) interesting consequence of concentrating on the initial intentions is that it is presupposed that the moral force is meant to carry through the entire event. "I did it all with the best of intentions" (Yes you did / No you didn't) seems to cover the duration of the entire event even if the event comprises many actors over many years. This arguably is not a great way of deciding right from wrong no matter where you lie on this issue. And one more thing. And then I'll shut up, promise :) How people feel about this issue could be seen to stem not from the duality that I think was given but from simply how patriotic they are: I love my country / I am proud of my country / my country can do no wrong or rarely does wrong / my country operates with the best of intentions. Also seems to boil down to how trustful or distrustful of those currently in power or whoever is in power. I hope we do find out and I hope we find out soon because I don't want my daughter to be having this debate with her friends when she is an adult about some other land torn apart by war. I say all this not in judgement of the current situation but to raise these issues so we can better understand ourselves. All things being equal (which they never are) are we at least in agreement that it is better this information is out in the open.