Does Targeted Killing ‘Work’?

Sometimes governments choose policies not because they work but because they can con the public into thinking that they work.

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Christopher Mott makes the case for restoring normal relations with Venezuela:

Danielle Pletka wants you to know that she thinks targeted killing “works”:

Targeted killing has become a tool of statecraft because it works, in the sense that it achieves the limited goals prescribed: A key individual, critical to an enemy’s agenda, is gone. It will not end Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but it can slow it down. It will not end Iran’s missile program, but it will cause many Iranians who might have signed up to think twice about the risks.

As with anything a government does, when someone says that something “works” our first question should always be, “works to do what?” Do sanctions work? If the goal is to impoverish and starve people, then they work very well in their cruel, sadistic way. If it is to achieve constructive changes in policy or changes in regime, they usually never work. The same goes for assassinations, as our government’s practice of targeted killing with drones should have already taught us long ago. Killing someone at the top can temporarily disrupt a terrorist organization, but in practice it tends to make that organization more dangerous and radical. Leaders can be replaced, and others will step up to fill the role that the dead men had. Short-term “successes” often lead to long-term failure. The entire “war on terror” is a huge, bloody cautionary tale that you cannot kill your way out of these problems.

Can a government successfully target and kill specific individuals? Obviously, it can. Does that achieve anything beyond murdering those people? That is much less clear. In the case of Israeli assassinations of Iranian officials and scientists, these tactics backfire all the time. Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program, but today it is closer to having one than it was just a few years ago because of Israeli assassination and sabotage attacks. If Iran ever does build a nuclear weapon, it will have to send the Mossad a gift basket for helping to encourage them to go all the way.

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Daniel Larison is a weekly columnist for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

29 thoughts on “Does Targeted Killing ‘Work’?”

  1. The United States and Israel are involved in targeted killings. They temporarily stop suicide bombings but escalate afterwards. Donald Trump’s drone strike against Soleimani and Israel’s assassination of Iranian Scientists make Iran more determined to develop nuclear weapons to keep the US, Israel and other enemies out of its territory, the weapons would be deterrents to declaring war on Iran.

    1. Except Iran isn’t developing nuclear weapons. Confirmed over and over again since 2002-3. That is the stupidity of the policies against Iran. Iran is a scapegoat, used to justify whatever Israel wants to do. Attack Syria? No, actually attacking “Iranian proxies in Syria.” Attack Iraq? No, “Iranian proxies in Iraq.” Iran confirmed to be following JCPOA? Who cares, walk away from it. Next president: return to it? No. Why not? Because reasons, that’s why.

  2. Does she think anyone working in those same fields in the US should be fair game too?

    1. No, but if the Iranians began assassinating US weapons scientists we couldn’t in good faith complain. Not that that would stop us. The real problem is assassination is a poor mans game. US hitmen maybe 3X better than anybody else but that is a slim margin compared to how much better than anybody else the US Navy is.

  3. Evidence suggests it doesn’t. Plus if you manage to kill all the upper management who do you negotiate with?

  4. A bit judgie, aren’t we? In the violent, dirty world of terror, all bets and rules are off. The enemy plays dirty, we play dirty. What morality is there in the business of terror? Our enemies behead, blow up, hack to death, drag naked and lifeless through the streets, drown and burn alive their enemies. And we do what? Drone a few, detain and then RELEASE 735 of them and put a few others on ‘trial?’ Oooh, scary! Grow up. These games are for keeps. Islamists believe we are all ‘kafir,’ the lowest thing on planet earth: ‘non-believers,’ ‘deceivers.’ They believe it is their holy duty to kill us, enslave us, tax us, rape us, marry us and otherwise subjugate us. Until all Islamists are dead or no longer have the means or will to kill us we must defend ourselves by any means necessary. Sharia Muslims believe in THEOCRACY, which is antithetical to our Constitution and laws. There is ZERO compatibility between our Judeo/Christian ethic and the laws of Sharia Islam. Killing stops the person who dies and has a real as well as subconscious effect on those connected to the deceased. It is a war of attrition. There are no ‘winners’ in war, only losers. The last losers survive.

      1. And that’s the most polite response possible to “Mister Granger.”

    1. Terrorist is another country’s freedom fighters. When there is no organized military faction, and countries with sophisticated weapons kill at will, revenge is on the menu. The cycle goes on and on.

      Speaking of those wanting a theocracy, do a little research into what is really happening in the U.S. of A. Chris Hedges wrote a piece in Scheerpost concerning what he sees is the rise of Christian fascism in the U.S.. https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/27/hedges-fascists-in-our-midst/

  5. Targeted Killings “blossom” in all shapes and colours. Just look at the working methods of the CIA and the SNIPER actions of the Middle East most active Terrorist State ISRAHELL !!

  6. Pletka was a staff writer for Sun Myung Moon’s Insight Magazine from 1987-1992.

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