Is it right to lie about Bin Laden's death?

The major faiths who share their roots in the Holy Land, share also a requirement to obey the commandment issued by God "Thou shalt not kill". This is such a fundamental law that even those who would deny any divine authority for it, absolutely accept its validity.

Fortunately the vast majority of human kind are never confronted with having to even consider if they would be compelled to break this commandment. Any dilemmas as to whether we could break this commandment are by their very nature nearly always hypothetical.

Especially the pacifist is very rarely tested. I remember the story of Lytton Strachey when asked by the tribunal deciding on his pacifism in the First World War, "If you saw a man raping your wife - what would you do?". He replied, "I would place myself between him and her." A reply often ridiculed because of the fact that Strachey was a homosexual.

Those who are truly tested (and I exclude from this members of the armed forces who we require that by by their nature they must deny this as an issue), are the politicians and leaders of countries who must decide on war and its implementation. We must all thank God that we are free from the hourly decisions of having to command death in order to preserve life.

But there is one moral dilemma we all share: Jew, Christian, Muslim, political leader, King, despot, man or woman in the street or on the land - whether to tell the truth or not.

Sometimes we feel it is necessary to slide around our family dilemmas with all sorts of excuses we wrap up in "white lies". But despite our protestations, in the end we always discover that honesty is the only genuine way to reach agreements and understandings. Even the honesty that admits a lie. In the end honesty (the good value) will triumph over the lie (the bad value). This is called hope.

And this is what disturbs me about the death of Bin Laden: I cannot imagine the dilemmas and awkward decisions that have been taken by the President of USA, nor the problems on the ground experienced by the Navy Seals, but I do understand the daily problems we all have wrestling with telling the truth.

President Obama must come clean and tell the whole truth about the planning, motivation and expedition of the death of Bin Laden. If necessary apologise if there are moral contradictions.

Then we can move on, honour intact.