Good and necessary article, but on this point more nuance is needed. I doubt that anyone thinks they are "mindlessly defending one side"...for some people nuanced thinking is out of reach, for others the disappointment in finding horrible attributes in people held up as heroes is too much to bear. We in the anti-Vietnam war movement fell victim to our own disillusionment and started to think in these binary terms. If OUR government was doing massive war crimes then the other side must be the blameless victims, a thought process that led to many of us waving the "Little Red Book" and others touring anti-aircraft batteries in Hanoi.

In this conflict terrorists are often also victims, their victimization led them to the nihilism of terrorism. In this conflict it's hard to distinguish between the innocent and those who benefit without protest from the acts of a criminal government.

And of course, asking people to climb off their absolutist high horses will get you condemned by all sides.