Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
Fuchs, I think you are talking about Wilf's article and in his case he was talking about a specific situation where it was used(with great effect) to achieve that particular Policy Objective. When I use the term targeted killing I mean killing those people and only those people that will lead you to your final Objective, that may be 1 or it may be 100,000.
Does it? What final objective?

I figure it's extremely rare that one or few persons are important enough that taking them out of the situation is a major and lasting improvement. There are usually effective replacements. I guess even Castro could have been replaced in '59 by someone else, for example.
Look at the infamous "AQ #3" thing, for example. It looks as if that's an endless line of martyrdom aspirants who are ready to move up into this position.

In the end, assassinations can become detrimental rather than advantageous - by virtue of millions of side-effects.


Look at AQ, for example. Final objective? Discourage AQ terrorism. Whom to kill for this objective? I figure this would first require to kill the motivators (the ideology preachers), then the terror organisers that are still acti8ve after ideology has run dry.
Feasibility? Near zero. Resemblance to actual campaign? 50% - the non-crucial 50%.

Look at the TB example. Final objective? TB shall subjugate to the rule of (central government's) law in AFG or stay out.
Whom to kill? All TB who oppose central government rule in AFG. Feasibility? Hopeless. Resemblance to actual assassination/grabbing campaign? 50%. The other half of the campaign happens to kill TB who at the time actually stayed out of AFG.


This assassination campaigning is to me an outgrowth of the non-Clausewitzian "center of gravity" version and the EBO thinking.

The U.S. is somehow obsessed with the military version of the G-Spot; fumbling and fumbling and fumbling, all the time pretending that it's trying to score at the one spot where fumbling leads to something huge.
Meanwhile, it's debatable whether such a spot exists at all.