Might without right creates wrong. Vengeful allies after World War I helped create Hitler. An autocratic Hitler helped create the alliance that defeated him. Corrupt colonizers helped create corrupt post-colonial rulers, who helped create the opponents who toppled them. Avenging Muslim fundamentalists helped create an avenging America, whose policies helped to create more avenging Muslims. Retribution creates only retribution.

Abraham Lincoln said it: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” He said it as an unannounced candidate for President under the banner of a party that had never won a presidency, before he had political might.