A recent editorial here on the bipolar nature of the twentieth century and the turn of the millennium, which will be here and gone faster than we can think, suggested the time was ripe to stop and reflect a little about things that matter. So our thoughts turn to murder. The opposite of love is not hate, which I think has been said.
Indifference is a truer hate, because it is disconnected.
The indifference, that is, the lack of humanization of or empathy for the enemy is well-known, and renders the killing possible. What's more important, however, is this basic issue of the simple pleasure, on some level, of killing. The mighty roar. At this paranoid level, guns are the greatest invention of mankind, because they extend a person's killing capacity and alleviate fear so effectively. No, I think it was called the Peacemaker.