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A review by zfeig
Kill Chain: Drones and The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn
dark
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This book reviews the history of high value targeting as a US military strategy from WW2 to the present. Using Vietnam, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror as case studies, he claims that targeting leaders is bad military strategy. He argues after an assassination the previous leader is quickly replaced and the organization becomes more effective and more violent. He also goes into the incentives that make 'high value targeting' so persistent and ineffective.
It's a good reminder that assassination is bad, but also gives a utilitarian framework for that argument. It's great to say assassination is unethical, but sometimes that is not enough to convince folks it is bad, you also have to show it doesn't work. Fantastic book.
It's a good reminder that assassination is bad, but also gives a utilitarian framework for that argument. It's great to say assassination is unethical, but sometimes that is not enough to convince folks it is bad, you also have to show it doesn't work. Fantastic book.