Are Assassinations An Effective Way To Fight Terrorism?

Photo: 2011 has been a banner year for taxpayer-funded assassinations, including Osama bin Laden (left) and Anwar Awlaki (center). The U.S. can probably take a lot of credit for Moammar Kadafi's (right) messy end too. (AP Photo)

Assassination Backlash -- Andrew Cockburn, L.A. Times editorial

It's been a banner year for targeted killings, but are they an effective way to fight terrorism?

There is no denying that 2011 has been a banner year for taxpayer-funded assassinations — Osama bin Laden, Anwar Awlaki, five senior Pakistani Taliban commanders in October and many more. Given the crucial U.S. backup role in Libya, and the ringing exhortation for the Libyan leader's death issued by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just before the event itself, we can probably take a lot of credit for Moammar Kadafi's messy end too.

Once upon a time, U.S. officials used to claim that we were merely targeting "command and control centers," rather than specific individuals, as in the hunt for Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Persian Gulf War or the raid on Kadafi in 1986. Nowadays no one bothers to pretend. Successful assassination missions, whether by elite special forces or remote-controlled drones, are openly celebrated.

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My Comment: I personally wished that the men who have been assassinated this year .... including Bin laden and Gaddafi .... were not killed. But do assassinations work? I know that in this case it did.