Hatred

There is something that I have been mulling in my mind, and this is no doubt something that will either be controversial or popular depending on who reads it. I think, that there is something different between killing someone, and killing them in wrath. Throughout the world, people die every day, and for the most part we accept it. Occasionally, people kill other people, and we sometimes accept that, depending on what the intent of the killer was. Even in the vicious times of Babylon, and Mosaic Israel there was a distinction made between murder and killing accidentally or in defense.

In war, killing necessarily comes up all the time. It is a fundamental function of a soldier that from time to time, you take a life. I think that even in that aspect, killing in wrath is bad. Of course, you kill for many reasons, to stay alive, to accomplish the mission, to save lives, and in the military we accept those. I think, however, that we also need to make the distinction that as professionals, killing out of anger is not acceptable. Not because there is a change in the death, or the outcome, but because of the negative effect that it has on us.