To be honest, I think most people here are bullshitting themselves.
I mean, look at any recent war or conflict in the world: the suicide rates for soldiers coming home are higher than they have ever been in the entire history of the world, or at least for as long as we have been keeping track. But just the difference between soldier suicides from WWI and the war in Iraq is huge. People come home and are unable to settle back into ordinary life, and then they think there is no other way out than killing themselves. Now, to be fair, war is different from "just" murder. In war, you see friends under fire or even getting killed. In war, youre not fighting just one person. But a murder brings its own horrible aspects. It's very personal. it's YOU taking someone elses life. You cant justify it by blaming someone else: the choice of murder is yours. No matter what someone has done to you, you can choose not to kill. Of course, the circumstances may force you to lose your calm and kill someone in pure rage, but that's beside the point.
It's like going to someone you dont know's funeral. You sit there and you realize that you feel nothing, no sorrow or pity for who ever has died. But that does not neccessarily make you cold. Not void of values, morals or empathy. You are just not part of that funeral. And it's easy to look at that funeral and think "Well, that's nothing. I dont care about death or people's lives." It's just that it does not make it so. Until you experience something like it, I dont think you can understand it fully.
I apologize for sounding angry. And, as people before me already put a lot shorter and more gallantly: "Talk is cheap" and "Yes, I think I could. But not live with myself after it."
