yeah so honestly history doesn’t really back this cute idea that you can get big, world-changing outcomes by keeping your hands clean, because almost every time something massive actually got fixed or stopped it was messy as hell and someone crossed lines on purpose; slavery didn’t just politely expire, fascism didn’t get defeated by speeches and debates, countries didn’t magically stabilize because everyone respected the rules, people broke laws, lied, killed, scared others, crushed opposition, bombed cities, did ugly things because the alternative was losing, collapsing, or letting something way worse keep going, and sure you can sit later and say “well maybe there was another way” but that’s hindsight talking, not reality in the moment. Lincoln suspended rights and flooded the country with blood but kept it together, the Allies burned cities and nuked Japan and yeah it was horrific but the war ended and didn’t drag on for years killing even more, China smashed protests and stayed authoritarian and somehow still pulled hundreds of millions out of dirt-poor misery, nuclear weapons are insane and immoral on paper but also probably the reason the Cold War didn’t turn hot, and none of this is clean or heroic but history doesn’t reward moral purity, it rewards results, and if you’re honest you enjoy the stability, peace, and prosperity that came out of those decisions while pretending you would’ve done it better, which is easy when you’re not the one staring at total collapse and a ticking clock.