A great example of personal ideology skewing perception is the idea that war can be fought cleanly, without deliberately attacking civilians, civilian infrastructure, etc. Especially when the enemy is itself civilian.
It is this perception that has turned the West into warmongers. We think that civilians are taken into account and alter our decision-making... but they don't. We just think they do, which lets our leaders wage war whenever they feel like, and pretend civilian casualties are the exception rather than the rule.
The sooner people realize that hard power cannot be exercised without maliciously causing hundreds of thousands, even millions, of civilian deaths, the better. Perhaps if we were honest about what war is, we'd do it less.