MURDER? IS THAT WHAT IT WAS?

          During the early stages of World War II in the South Pacific, there was a huge billboard on a hill overlooking the entrance to a U.S. Navy harbor.  All ships entering the Solomon Islands area sailed past this billboard.  It’s message was simple.  Kill the Yellow Bastards.  Under it was the signature of Admiral Bull Halsey.

          The message did not say “murder.”  It simply said “kill.”  That is what enemies do in a war.  They kill one another. MURDER?  IS THAT WHAT IT WAS?

          In a national press conference I heard Senator Joe Leiberman, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Home Security,  tell people to be on alert because we can expect retaliation for the murder of Osama bin Laden.  MURDER?  Does Senator Leiberman not understand that we are in a war against terrorism and that the object is to kill the enemy?

          A dictionary definition of “murder” is to “kill a human being unlawfully and with premeditated malice.”  The killing of Bin Laden was not murder unless you also consider what our armed forces are trained to do during a war as murder.