German fighter pilot spared enemy bomber in WWII -- and it proves empathy critics dead wrong

Empathy faces attacks as weakness, but a World War II story proves otherwise. German pilot Franz Stigler spared enemy bomber in 1943, showing empathy as courage.

Stigler risked his own reputation, career and even life, to fly for miles in close proximity to the bomber’s wingtip, providing a shield for the damaged enemy plane from other fighters.   Marcus Brotherton writes extensively about veterans and World War II. His latest book, "The Long March Home," is a tribute to the WW2 troops who fought in the Pacific.

The argument goes like this: if you’re empathetic, you’re being manipulated into accepting all manner of ideas, behaviors or policies that you would otherwise reject. Empathy, in this view, is a Trojan horse for weakness. 

But that’s a dangerous distortion.