I think, Don, that in most cases everyone thinks pretty much the same thing about their "good guys" in general terms...but not in specific terms of outer labels and outer political issues...just in general terms.

In other words, they think that their "good guys" are dedicated to truth, patriotism, loyalty, courage, duty, honor, honesty, freedom, and all such good stuff.

The people they are fighting ("the bad guys") think all that stuff about their own "good guys" too. Both sides imagine that their own "good guys" are fighting for every kind of good thing, and that the enemy is opposing every kind of good thing.

This is usually quite naive on the part of both sides, although it may also be partly true on both sides...and to differing degrees.

WWII's Germans, for instance, mostly felt that they were fighting for truth, justice, freedom, courage, duty, honor, honesty, patriotism, civilization, etc. That's what their leaders told them!

And the Allied leaders told the Allied troops the same kind of things.

I'm not saying both sides were morally equivalent! They certainly were not. But I think they were both utterly sure that they were standing up for the "good" values against the "evil" values.

In that case, the Germans were far more completely misled than those who were fighting against them, that's all, because they were under a worse system for the most part (Stalinism excepted...I think it was just as bad as Naziism).

People are easily fooled by their own propaganda and culture. They always think they're fighting for the "good" against the "bad" no matter which side they are fighting on.

Didn't the Lakota think they were fighting for the "good"? Didn't Custer's men think the same thing? Each seeing it from their own view, it made sense. But from the enemy's view, it didn't.

In a similar way, the eagle that siezes the fish thinks he's doing a very good thing. The fish thinks he's doing a very bad thing, but if the fish were catching a fly, then the fish would think he was doing a very good thing, wouldn't he? And what would the fly think?

In practical terms...in the real experience of life...the "good guys" are GOOD because we think they are, based on our culture, our history, our politics, and our entire background and memory.

If we are clear-headed enough to think beyond our culture, our history, our politics, and our entire background...THEN we are able to see through propaganda to a higher truth...and THEN we CAN determine who is doing good, who is doing evil, and who is just doing something that's somewhere in between those extremes.

How many people are clearheaded enough to think beyond their culture, their history, their politics, their race, their gender, and their entire personal background? To put it another way: how many people are completely unbiased and unprejudiced, and therefore capable of rendering a completely fair judgement on another's actions?

And that's why someone once said: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

If people had the wisdom to do that, to behave that honestly, I predict that very few stones would ever be cast at anyone. And we'd have no wars. And no quarrels either.