If you kill someone and it is not in self defense, is it murder?

[The Straight Story]

If you do it to a few hundred thousand people....

Our soldiers were/are defending their lives, they were in the line of fire. I don't blame them.

The one who ordered the hit was/is not.

Call it a war, get out of jail free card and you can keep doing it. And make money off of it.

Thousands of men, women, and children are dead, and the defendant who claimed it was self defense lied on the witness stand. But then, the one who did all this will probably never see a witness stand or be called before others to face trial.

He had the 'ok' to defend us with force. He did not kill in self defense. And yet he is a free man whose paycheck comes out of mine. Makes me sick.

Something to think about.

[Lasher]

1. It is forbidden to kill;

therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. - Voltaire

[The Straight Story]

2. Pretty much spot on

Thanks for the quote, sums it up nicely :)

[Lasher]

4. That one is hard to forget.

Peace. :hippie:

[otherlander]

3. Ok, now that I see the context

that you're saying it in, yes, it is murder. He is a murderer.

But when all I saw was the subject line, I was going to say, not neccesarilly. It could be in defense of others...

[foxsux]

5. Depends on the one being killed.

Some of them are insurgents. I wouldn't call that murder. Some are civilians. Unless it can be proven to be done on purpose, I would call that an accident.

[The Straight Story]

6. Or more to the point for you: The entire war

It was based on a lie of self defense. So there would not be insurgents to kill if we were not there...

[BlooInBloo]

7. The difference between individual killing and killing en masse isn't merely quantitative...

... It's also *qualitatively* different.

[Cleita]

8. I have a hard time killing a bug, so this is a hard question

for me in the whole universal way of thinking of it. As to the bug, I try to relocate it elsewhere, even poisonous ones, if I can. I do kill my share, sadly. Yet, I know we are always in a balance of killing to survive. All the creatures around us do the same and many just act from their genetic programming like my cat does and the family dogs sometimes do.

So to kill someone who is trying to kill me or those dear to me, I probably would try. However, institutional, military style killing has to be taught because most people really, without previous experience, have a problem killing a rodent let alone a human. Rural people raised with hunting and dispatching livestock have learned to kill at an early age. I think this is why the military tries to recruit rural people. They think killing might come easier to them.

So to get to your question about murder, my thoughts are is that to take a life, any life means that you have to make up for what that life could contribute if it were alive. If you can't make up for it then you have left a void that will alter the future. I know, people think who gives a shit about cockroaches or gophers, but they exist because the predators who exterminated them have been killed by us.

Okay I am rambling. I can say I would have no problem killing any enemy who threatened me as long as I was very sure that I was threatened and that this was a genuine enemy. Of course they would have to invade my shores, not we invade theirs and we declare them an enemy. We are the murderers.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. It depends

murder is a legal concept. Depends on the law, I guess.