Since our military will soon massacre thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, most of them children, the Jackson Progressive proposes, in the best of national traditions, the following exemptions from the Sixth Commandment. Americans have the instinctive need to feel that whatever their government are doing is righteous and ordained by the Almighty. Murder is one of the most heinous crimes known to humankind, so it is important to justify mass killings is such a way as to remove them from the purview of the commandment. Our consciences must remain unrustled
In this task of justification I believe we have been successful. If you are aware of other exemptions that are valid, we would appreciate your letting us know. No killing in the name of the United States should be without the Deity's blessing.
1. You kill on someone else's orders;
2. You kill at least 100,000 or more innocent civilians; that transforms a massacre into mere collateral damage;
3. You kill Moslems, or at least mostly Moslems. If a few Christians die in the process, that's unfortunate, but they shouldn't have been there in the first place;
4. You kill people that are living on top of significant oil reserves;
5. You kill people who already suffer under a brutal and ambitious dictator;
6. You kill remotely, either by dropping bombs from 50,000 feet or by cruise missiles launched from hundreds of miles away;
7. You kill children;
8. You kill only people with darker skin;
9. You kill indirectly, by destroying the water supply, so that your targets die from water-borne diseases like dysentary;
10. You kill people indirectly, by causing cancer and other environmental diseases they contract from your use of depleted uranium;
11. You kill indirectly, by imposing sanctions on the civilian population that deny them essential medicines to treat the diseases and cancers that you have caused by your other actions;
12. You kill in secret, by censoring the news. If nobody knows about it, it doesn't exist.
Note: Keep in mind that if you bomb people who are already suffering from dysentery, cancer or other environmental diseases, you not only get the benefit of exemption 6 but also additional merit for having done the humanitarian act of putting these people out of their misery.
Write these exemptions into the margins of your Bible next to the Exodus 20:13 and into your hearts. That way, your conscience can remain clear, because no matter who get killed or where the killing is, you will usually be able to fit the killing into one of these exemptions.