Lonesome EJ, I think the way you framed this question makes it a very important question indeed. It is much too easy to accept an easy answer and learn nothing from the events of the past in the process.

I am of Polish extraction and as I look back over the history of my people and their interaction with their neighbors that mirror what happened in the American West. My point being that wherever you look, wherever you focus your attention on the acts of mankind, you find gruesome and horrendous deeds performed by average guys, by admired guys and by scumbags. Look long enough and you get more than enough data to support the conclusion of the villain in "The Matrix" who identified humanity as a virus on this earth. Gratefully, we are a virus with aspirations toward something better. This is why, I think, that I am absorbed with our history. Because for every horrible deed you can cite, there will be an act of heroism, also. But rather than slapping an easy label on these deeds we need to dig a little deeper.

I think it's important to keep judgmental language out of the discussion. "He was a scumbag" has no value. In the context of his times, and of his role as an officer, etc. he was a brave man. What is important is looking at what was happening and how he reacted; that may help us to make better choices when we need to react to was is happening now. It's that old saw about those ignorant of history repeating it. We need to learn the real lessons, not the easily digestible, readers digest versions.