It's the easiest thing in the world to armchair-quarterback the events of the past. The real challenge is to understand why so many people felt that it *was* a necessary, though I'm sure as abhorrent to them as it is to you, thing to do.

The truth is that you can't say what you would have done, because you weren't there. You can guess, and of course your guess will have all the smug self-righteous moral overtones of someone who has never held life and death in his hands and had to decide.