unlike many who carry out terrorist attacks, those who advocate state assassination policies must think not only tactically but strategically, analyzing the second- and third-order effects of the removal of terrorist leaders. Killing a head may result in a fight for succession within a group. Who is the new leader likely to be? The original charismatic leader may indeed be irreplaceable, or he may not: the old cliché about the devil you know applies here. It is not at all guaranteed that the successor will be an improvement, from a counterterrorism perspective.
