when characters conflict with your ideology

How do you write well about a subject when you already know what you think about it?

Ed Burns and David Simon, the writers of The Wire, have written a new series, Generation Kill, about the Iraq war. It's based on Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright's bestselling book about Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Burns is resolutely anti-war, but he tells the New Statesman,

'If you start empathising with the characters you'll find they do things that conflict with your ideology. That is good storytelling. It unsettles you.'