The Wall Street Journal reported that, last week, Elon Musk “ordered Space X to slow down its service in Ukraine, rendering some drones that stopped incoming missiles and others aimed at Russian targets useless.” [FN1] The crime of murder is “malum in se,” [FN2] 1/10

i.e., accepted as wrong across jurisdictions & its elements, generally, consist of “unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.” [FN3] Any people killed were on the ground in Ukraine when the order to slow down “Space X’ was ordered elsewhere. 2/10

“Murder” is a crime defined by Ukraine Criminal Code: intentional killing without aggravating circumstances, and “aggravating circumstances” include selfish motives, (i.e., monetary profit) or where there are more than two victims or victims include a minor child. [FN4] 3/10

In works of fiction, war profiteering used to spark outrage. [FN5] In the “real world,” the United
States’s captains of industry have enjoyed profits from enabling the machines of war to kill a lot of people. J.P. Morgan dodged service in the Civil War & made $$$ from sales 4/10

of defective rifles. Morgan was subjected to the indignities of a Congressional investigation, but was exonerated. [FN6] Only a cynic would say Morgan’s conduct was All-American in that he was able to kill on both sides. I hope we all are such cynics. Let’s hypothesize. 5/10

Owner of a corporation orders interruption of use of an item the corporation sold to one of two sides in a war, & knows the effects of his order will result in killing people whom the product was sold to protect. That’s way beyond J.P. Morgan’s case. [FN7] 6/10

It’s unnecessary to assert that the corporate owner committed a “war crime.” That requires more elements to be proven. This is just plain ol’ vanilla homicide, but committed at the order of the “world’s richest man.” Murder is Murder is Murder is Murder is Murder ... 7/10

Footnotes:
FN1. Heather Cox Richardson, “Letters from an American,” 10/21/26, accessed 10/25/26.
FN2. “[Latin evil in itself’] A crime or an act that is inherently immoral, such as murder, arson, or rape.” Black’s Law Dictionary, New Pocket Edition (1996), p. 400. 8/10

FN3. Id., p. 428.
FN4. Ukraine Criminal Code, Art. 115.
FN5. See, Arthur Miller, “All My Sons” (1946).
FN6. “J.P. Morgan Biography,” Sky History, accessed 10/25/26. 9/10

FN7. See, Gil Duran, “The Nerd Reich,” p. 127, in observing Bilasi Srinivasan’s goal “to do to San Francisco what Musk had done to Twitter: Gut it, purge it, and harvest its power.” 10/10