‘Decapitation’ –targeting top terrorists is not enough

WASHINGTON,DC: Gen. John Allen, the retired Marine who is coordinating the campaign against the Islamic State, gave an upbeat briefing to Congress last week. He said that because of airstrikes by the US-led coalition, the group has “lost half of its Iraq-based leadership and thousands of hardened fighters.”

“Decapitation” is the graphic term for this strategy of killing leaders of terrorist groups. The US adopted this approach against al-Qaeda, most dramatically in the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, and many American analysts have assumed that it worked. President Obama made that argument a centerpiece of his 2012 re-election campaign.