not sure if it's right to send Americans to prison for doing what their president told them to. kind of applies to anyone who's acting based on a conviction they have, really. i mean, if you think you're liberating a country, and this way of thinking shines through in court in such a way that it's obvious that you truly believe(d) in it, and you still send them to prison, you're basically saying "don't trust your brain" aren't you?

as for staying lawful? countries have been freed from dictators by breaking the law, and we approve of it in those cases. the law is a tool, not a book on ethics.

we would also approve of, say, helping a bleeding person on the street by breaking into a closed pharmacy to get medical supplies.

now suppose it later turned out that the bleeding person was faking it.

now you have broken into a pharmacy for no reason. should you go to jail?

i mean, when people have broken the law under some kind of belief, i don't think *prison* is the right place to send them.

@thor
Prison is not the right place to send even for real crimes. Many just go into crime again and again then.