The US has (since 1981, at least,) had a policy that we will not assassinate.
Has this policy been rescinded?
Or does the state of war that exists between the US and Iraq allow the attempt to kill Saddam Hussein on March 19?
Or is the key part of the order assassination, which implies stealth, and dropping a bomb on someone’s head is somehow more honorable?
The exceutive order is mainly about intelligence activities, but the paragraph above seems pretty general in scope.
Even if the the order only applies to intelligence agencies and their personnel, it seems clear that such were involved in finding the location of SH, which could also violate the order even if CIA planes/pilots weren’t involved in the bombimg.
Finally, should the US have a policy against assassination?
If the point of all this is really to remove SH and his sons, I’d be a lot happier with killing them by assassination than by killing lots of Iraqis and Americans and spending billions of dollars to do it.
I, and most Americans, have no idea whether or not the executive order prohibbititng the assassination of foreign leaders has been repealed or not. This could be done very easily, as it would only take another executive order to do it. This would be an unnecessary step at this time. In a war, all commanders are legitimate targets - which would cover Saddam.
On a more philosophical level, I think having a ban on assassination is a good idea - especially in the form we now have it. It gives the appearance (at the very least) of a moral high ground on the question. Also, as noted above, the ex. order can be repealed very easily if we decide that assassination is the only viable means of effecting some action that we desire.
I would agree with your last point if the removal of Saddam and his sons was the only goal of the action. However, removing the leader is only part of the job, and must be followed by helping the Iraqis create a stable government in the aftermath. Also, the search for and destruction of WMD and other prohibited materials can be best effected by a pressence in the area.