SandySandfort;
I've never dismissed anything "as a matter of opinion", because all opinions matter to me.
A. Harris was responsible for the deaths of thousands of non-combatants. Have I suggested I think differenty? There are those who argue that he saved thousands by shortening the war (A. Speer for instance, a swine, but a logistical genius). Therefore I suggest that had a character made the comment about the fictional Harris, that would've been acceptable, since it would have been presented as a matter of opinion. But the word was used by the omniscient narrator, making it a fact.
To answer your question, no, because "murderer" is again a matter of opinion (only incidentally mine), and for the same reason.
Rocketman, I did compare Harris and Jefferson, didn't I? But then what is the opinion of "the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages" regarding the Declaration of Independence? I don't think they were asked at the time; nor indeed were several other "races". I admire Jefferson greatly, not least because of his suggestion that Native Americans be inocculated against European diseases (that was him, I think), but his name is on that document. Therefore I think the comparison not quite so jarring as that between Mother Teresa and Hitler (please read carefully, I am not comparing Jefferson to Hitler). Possibly the only crime of the Mother Teresa was that of failing to question her superiors' stance on contraception.
(Amendment; capital letters Mother Teresa)