@roamer_1
In the example to which you replied...you suggested a lie, if even to himself, that he TRULY didn't believe in killing people, yet enlisted.
I hate the term too. But if it looks like a horse...
@DCPatriot A principle is a 'first thing'. a thing that is self-evidently true, and always true.
If one is under the conviction that killing people is wrong, always wrong, then joining the military would not be standing upon truth, which is rather, supporting a lie - Living a lie.
Either he was lying to himself, or he was too timid to stand upon the truth, as he described it, or as he knew it at the time. There can be no other answers.
Whether his conviction was right or wrong is not the point. That he was not willing to stand upon that conviction is the point.
Any time one yields to the lie, for whatever reason, one diminishes the truth.