History Lesson

The absolute first thing taught at infantry basic training during the Cold War was that the maximum effective range of an excuse is zero.  On the face of it I saw this as the response to any attempt to explain a failure to learn a necessary skill.  But this idea also applies to the moral nightmare we were facing during with the Communist enemy and their excuses for their crimes.  The functions of ideology are to erase the responsibility of the perpetrators for their actions and to deny the humanity of the victims.  But there's never a valid excuse for murder.