Always.

There is always a need to justify something that one knows is morally wrong. It's compounded by hubris, which keeps people from ever admitting a mistake or seeking to make amends--instead doubling down on a stance that becomes increasingly tenuous, yet it becomes all one has to stand on.

If you're guessing this is in response to certain recent events, you'd be guessing correctly. If you're trying to guess whom my sympathy lies with, I'll make it easy: it lies with the innocent.

It lies with the people who's lives have been turned upside down and who, inevitably, will face further problems down the road. It lies with those who will be persecuted, not for anything they've done but for who and what they are.

And yet, this too will be justified. The human misery, the punishment of innocents, the destruction of lives. All shall be justified.

If you don't think so, try figuring out why a life should be saved. I'll bet you'll find it harder to do, requiring more explanation, than why a life should be taken.