Death-ics

What is it about death that separates the left and the right? Issues like war and the death penalty, for example, are quite divisive. I've come to the early conclusion that the primary, and most general, difference between them is a belief in obejective right and wrong larger than individuals which the left denies and the right defends. Allow me to explain:

War
Why is it that the liberals threw a fit after 9/11, claiming that Bush was at fault for not preventing the attack only to throw another fit when Bush took action to prevent further attacks? Granted they hate Bush no matter what he does, they generally claim that he was wrong in invading Iraq, not because of WMD's but because it involved killing "innocent people".

If the liberals are right that the only legitimate value system is utilitarian relativism and a person's individual rights, especially their physical rights like life, are the only way to determine what is "right" or "wrong" then it would seem that any action robbing even one person of their individual sacred rights would be the highest "wrong". I've already treated the nonsense of utilitarian ethical relativism previously so I won't dwell on it here. If the conservatives are right, however, then there exists a system of ethics that holds authority over all people with "right" and "wrong" being objective principles that must be upheld far above any one individual's desires or "rights". It's not that conservatives don't value life; quite the contrary in fact, just look at their stance on abortion. "Thou shalt not kill" is fundamental, but even a cursory read of one Old Testament narrative shows that killing is very "right" in certain circumstances: namely war and the death penalty.

Applying this to current events like the Isreali-Lebanon conflict, we find the same dichotomy. The right is generally supporting the war and the left is lamenting the loss of "innocent life". Why do conservatives support the war? I recently heard a great line in an old movie about WWII and the bombing of Hiroshima. A man told his wife that he felt horrible about killing but that it would be an ever greater wrong to let the enemies get away with what they're doing. That's exactly it! No sane person, right or left, wants to kill for the sake of killing but there are circumstances when killing is the right thing to do. Is it bad that Lebanese civilians are being hurt and killed? Yes, but it would be worse to let Hezbollah get away with terrorism. Not because of logistics, or money, or national borders, but because it is right to stand up and fight against such an enemy and it is wrong to leave them alone.

This is about ethics. Was it right for America to join the fight against Hitler and his Nazi regime? Yes, it was. Was it right for America to bomb Japan? Yes, it was. Not because America simply had the power, but because the universal standard of right declared us just to destroy such evil in the world. The same applies to Iraq, Hezbollah, and any other evil regime.

The difference, then, between right and left is that the right is willing to stand up and fight for justice, counting the cost but obeying a higher call. The left is unwilling to stand up for justice because of the cost. It's like another line I heard in a movie: "nothing is worth your life". Maybe for a relativist that's true, but I'm proud to claim that there are many things worth "your life" and justice is certainly one of them.