Targeted for death

I don't know a lot about Mabhouh. He seems to have been a legitimate target, but there are prudential arguments against hitting him in a country that has been in fact, without anybody acknowledging it, a strategic ally of Israel's -- a semi-friend. And using fake British passports -- I mean, it was done so badly that obviously it shouldn't have been done. The French have this saying: "It was worse than a crime; it was a mistake."

The United States is now committed to targeted assassination as a policy. We have done it sometimes successfully and sometimes with a lot of civilian deaths. It should be the policy of the United States in Afghanistan, and probably in Pakistan too, that after you carry out one of these raids, you should be prepared to defend it. You're using the coercive power of the state in a lethal way, and in a democracy -- in a country committed to the rule of law -- actions of that sort should be subject to some kind of public scrutiny.