Avoid assassination

THE CENTRAL Intelligence Agency is planning to resume clandestine missions targeted at killing certain individuals. Since the mid-1970s, executive orders signed by three United States presidents have outlawed clandestine assassination. Previously the USA had directly or indirectly orchestrated various political killings in developing countries during the Cold War. It is understandable that the CIA wants to revisit the prohibition on selective assassination but it is ultimately misguided. Uganda can see the logic from its own experience. Joseph Kony has caused chaos in northern Uganda through the authority he exercises as a spirit medium. If he was eliminated, the Lords Resistance Army might collapse without his brutal but charismatic leadership. How many lives would then be saved? How many innocent children would then be safe from the threat of kidnap? Yet it is also true that Kony is merely a successor to Alice Lakwena and Severino Lukoya. Maybe another spirit medium would emerge to take on Kony’s mantle if he was asssassinated. Israel is also practising a policy of selective assassination in Palestine. They have been systematically eliminating all those Palestinian leaders who they believe have been responsible for suicide bombings and attacks in Israel. But this has outraged ordinary Palestinians and only worsened the security situation. It has created a lose-lose situation for Israel and Palestine. The United States is by far the most powerful country in the world. Who can discipline it? It would be very dangerous for it to start eliminating its political enemies. The CIA might start with genuine sinners but eventually it would inevitably start getting rid of legitimate but irritating critics. And if they were killed, that could lead to conflagration.