License to Kill

According to The Washington Post, Bush administration officials still refuse to concede that last night's cruise missile salvo failed to kill Saddam Hussein. Maybe his televised speech was recorded ahead of time, they say, even though it mentioned March 20 as the day the war started. Or maybe it was a Saddam double who gave the speech.

Another interesting question raised by the attempt to kill the tyrant of Baghdad: What took us so long? Why does the U.S. government continue to reject assassination as a legitimate foreign policy tool? It's hard to understand why it's acceptable to kill foreign heads of state only as part of a broader assault in which many other people die.