America Is No Better Than Israel On Assassination

To the editors:

The Crimson’s specific condemnation of Israel’s targeted killing of Sheik Achmed Yassin (Editorial, “Assassination Doesn’t Work,” March 25) seems ironic given the current state of affairs here in the United States.

How strange that American indignation at Israel’s defensive maneuver comes just as news emerges from the White House that President Clinton had ordered the CIA to take out Osama Bin Laden at the first opportunity. In addition, before the start of the current war in Iraq, President Bush launched a “decapitation strike” aimed at taking out Saddam Hussein. A missile was directed towards a house in Baghdad and the American population was generally disappointed when it was discovered that the attack was unsuccessful.

How is any of this different from what Israel did? According to a Clinton administration official, as quoted on cnn.com, “senior legal advisers in the Clinton administration agreed that, under the law of armed conflict, killing a person who posed an imminent threat to the United States was an act of self-defense, not an assassination.”

The same could certainly be said of the former Hamas leader. If “sovereign nations,” as the editorial says, should be discouraged from targeted killings, perhaps the Crimson Staff would do well to remember that our very own government engages in the same activity. Once again, Israel is singled out for criticism in the media though the world contains much worse offenders, including the United States. Criticism is welcome in this country, as long as it is distributed fairly.

RACHEL L. BROWN ’01

March 25, 2004