“Hard cases”, it is said, make “bad law”. We like the outcome, but we deplore the rule.

The news from Swat presents just such a confrontation between a tremendously felicitous result (a genuine Taliban surrender!!—they actually found someone to play Tojo and someone to play McArthur.) and a broad sanction against the sort of remote, “death from above” kill the bad guy + everyone within 50 yards misslle strike that was used here.

In this case, we learn that as result of the assasination of Baitullah Mehsud in August (plus wife & kids, of course) the not entirely unpredictable struggle amongst his lieutenants has totally unravelled the same organization that had successfully forced a truce on the Pak government and then, in violation thereof, occupied and run the whole Swat valley for several months.

I am broadly inclined to the truth of the proposition that no individual’s death, when purchased at the cost of our committment to law and order, can ultimately be useful in a struggle where hearts and minds are the playing field. itself. (David Kilcullen presents a thoughtful *calculus for identifying potential exceptions to this rule and would surely consider Mehsud such.)

The particular Taliban in question, moreover, are especially **odious.

That said, I am disturbed to discover in myself this sentiment, which I must in candor disclose: ” I’m glad they snuffed you Ba’it-ullah! Rot in your Yahwist hell, you twisted perverted asshole!”.

So, does this make me a bad person?

*1) The target in question poses a threat to the international community (not solely to U.S. forces or interests in Afghanistan); AND 2) It is located in an area outside of effective Pakistani sovereignty (e.g. in a non-controlled area of the FATA or in a micro-haven elsewhere) AND 3) Pakistan has tried but failed to extend its sovereignty into the area, or to deal effectively with the target on its own; AND 4) The target is positively identified and clearly distinguishable from surrounding populations, reducing the risk of collateral damage to a level acceptable to elected political leaders.

**They also come at me where I live, so to speak; .”Earlier this year they executed one of the valley’s most popular dancers as part of a moral crusade to drive out public entertainment.”

UPDATE A Taliban spokesman specifically cited this predator strike as one of three for which vengeance had been sought in the Khost infiltration and destruction of base Chapman, staging ground for our drone strikes.

The back story: per TIME, the doctor who blew himself and 8 others up was in all likelihood the very guy who had fingered Mehsud, and several other “targets” who took with them from this world innocents of all ages and sexes. Remorse filled his dreaming.

Coming, perhaps belatedly, to the *Scarface epiphany, the suicide bomber did what Tony Montana did—Tony killed the assassin who was about to blow up a man’s wife and child as “collateral damage”. In so doing he committed suicide, albeit on a slight delay. Our bomber was too late to save the women and kids, but he was, apparently, driven by his responsibilty for their deaths.

Meanwhile, Ba’itullah has been replaced by his younger cousin Hakimullah,the Taliban insurrection in Waziristan is spilling over into Baluchistan where Mullah Omar runs the Quetta Shura, so it’s hard to see any real gain from snuffing Ba’itullah, despite any application of Kilcullen’s “elegant calculus”.

And we have lost 5 CIA including our #2 in Afghanistan . (This really was our #2, unlike the endless series of #3 Al Q. honchos the “neutralization” of whom is announced periodically.

*Tony Montana: Bet you feel good, huh? Bet you feel good to kill a mother and her kids, huh, bet you feel BIG… Alberto The Shadow: Shut your mouth! Tony Montana: …Like, you big man. Well fuck you. What do you think I am? You think I’d kill two kids and a woman? Fuck that! I don’t need that shit in my life. [Alberto reaches for detonator’s button] Tony Montana: You die motherfucker! [Tony shoots him in the head] Tony Montana: What’d you think of that, huh? What you think, I’m a fucking worm like you? I told you, man, I told you! Don’t fuck with me! I told you, no fucking kids! No, but you wouldn’t listen, why, you stupid fuck, look at you now.