Thank you for your thoughtful answer, Mike.

I am sorry if I made you think that I condenmned Benjamin as a dishonorable man. What I meant to say was that with respect to his participation in two dishonorable wars, he made himself dishonorable on that level. At other levels, such as raising his daughter, caring about his parents, neighbors, community, etc. he still may be an honorable man. But he has a schism in his consciense which he may not know about or tries to hide from himself. He needs to confront it eventually, in order to heal his soul, regain his integrity.

From what he writes, I see that Benjamin is still confused. He does not see the forest from the trees. He thinks that refusing to shoot a young girl or sharing meals with poor farmers somehow absolves him from the responsibility of actively supporting a horror machine which slaughtered millions of innocent fellow men he calls “the enemy” and engendered the birth of the Islamic State, an equally horrendous counterpart to his horror machine.

He may not be alone with his problem. Many other men also ran with the pack and now refuse to confront their tragic mistake, while the mass media showcases them as “American heros”. In this sense, the US has made itself a dishonorable country, and can not heal, until it faces its tragic mistake.