Assassination as a Policy

Then, after columns of limp hand-wringing over the immorality and illegality and ineffectuality of assassination, Jenkins makes the curious admission that he deems "aggressive covert operations" against terrorist groups acceptable because the resultant random deaths would not violate his definition of assassination: "the cold-blooded selection and murder of a specific individual." In other words, killing terrorists can be justified only so long as it's collective and non-discriminatory--and hot blooded. Most curious.

Finally, Jenkins concedes that even the "cold-blooded" variety of retaliation against terrorists would be acceptable if we were "at war." Jenkins may be living in a well insulated cocoon, but the rest of us who glance at the newspapers occasionally have been all too aware that the lunatic fringe of Islam has declared war--both by word and deed--on the West in general and the United States specifically.

What option is left? Jenkins himself concedes that "assassination is the cleanest form of warfare." Let's get on with it.

C.J. WRIGHT

Venice