[djmcmath]

Who says there's anything wrong with a few harmless assassinations? I mean, 1800 people per month is nothing huge, really. (end sarcasm) In all seriousness, political assassinations don't particularly bother me, in reasonable numbers. The theory is that the people who would be going to war against you will not make war if their leader is deposed. For example, had Hitler been offed before he really went crazy (and Hermie G., and a couple other top-enders, perhaps), the heart would have been ripped from Nazi Germany, and the millions of Germans (and Russians, and Poles, and ...) who died fighting that war might have lived.

That's the theory, anyway. Not that it matters, really -- 1800/month (like in Phoenix) is absurd -- that crosses the line from targetted assassination to ... something else, entirely. Similarly (or not), this current set of human rights violations is nothing like assassination of political leaders. It's a lot more like being random bullies to people that you happen to have positional authority over.

Dan