1 This policy of killing leaders to win wars, "cutting off the head of the snake," bothers me. I'm not sure of what my problem is with it. For one thing, it doesn't seem to be working very well. We've been killing the heads of terrorist groups for several decades now. How many of those groups have ceased to be a problem? How many new ones have sprung up?

2 I get that Bill. It used to be against the rules of war to kill enemy leaders. George Washington, for instance, was once in the sights of a British officer who let him go because it wasn't acceptable to target an  enemy general.

Of course terrorists aren't quite the same thing as soldiers, nor is a terrorist regime. And, as you point out, so often there is a guy as bad or worse waiting to takeover. (BTW if Putin is removed in Russia his replacement is likely to be someone much worse.)

On the other hand this is a tactical move to disorganize them right now while other attacks are being made. Take out the command and control functions then the infrastructure. We largely did that to Japan and Germany during WWII. For example we got wind of the whereabouts of Admiral Yamamoto and shot his plane down, killing him and taking out their best guy. It's been done.

So I don't know about the efficacy of it but we can't really say it's HURTING their efforts.

3 I have sort of a moral issue against anything which makes war easier. Like pilotless warplanes. War should be the last resort, and making it less costly takes it in the direction of an easier choice. Good for the men who would be killed, perhaps, but not good for mankind. Better to not have war than to have war that kills them but kills fewer of us.

4 I have often thought it was greatly unfortunate that Admiral Yamamoto didn't survive the war, because it would have been very good to have had his memoirs available to the rest of the world. He was a wise man, not a political hack. We know that at the beginning of the war he was not enthusiastic about it, and I should greatly have liked to see how his viewpoint changed as the war progressed.

We have such books by various members of the German General staff, and they are interesting in their own right.

5 Bill, you're right about the problems with making it easier. I am mindful of the words of Robert E. Lee "it is good that war is so terrible lest we grow too fond of it".

Dana,that indeed would have been good. Yamamoto had gone to school in the U.S. and knew what we were capable of doing. He advised against the war. He told the top brass he'd run wild for six months then lose so the war had to end within months, not years. He was the only voice of caution while Tojo and the rest thoguht we were marshmallows, as easy to beat as the Russians had been.

He WOULD have had some fascinating stories.