melmothtw
No there is no such consensus here at all.
What there is, is an understanding that things are not black and white in any war, let alone a civil war.
Personally, with no dog in this fight, I tend to root for the rebels. This is probably due to my respect for their amazing courage and my "Britishness" when it comes to supporting the underdog despite the fact that in terms of national interest Assad is probably preferable in the long term.
I don't see a problem in supporting the defecting jet pilots without condemning the helicopter pilots. We do not know their personal circumstances.
If I was a single guy, I would like to think I would have defected rather than fight a civil war. If I was leaving my wife and kids behind then certainly not.
What I do know is that I would not wish the horror of all helicopter pilots, ie the 10 seconds of blazing agony begging for the release of the final impact that helicopter fires can cause purely based upon which side of a war you happen to be on.
Ironically, the ability to dehumanise the enemy to the point where you can rejoice in their agonized death as demonstrated above by heli-cal is the first step that normal, social humans need to go through to perform atrocities. Witness the huge number of normal Germans/Japanese who did terrible things after they came to believe that the enemy was not worthy of human respect.
People who understand that the world has many shades of gray and are just doing their job no matter how distasteful are far less likely to do something truly awful than the fervent believer.
Best take a close look at yourself, heli-cal.
Last edited by Tourist; 29th August 2012 at 09:39.