Pat Robertson’s basic assumptions echo those of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, including that the ends (the dominance of the United States) justify virtually any means & that securing oil reserves is tantamount to preserving US national security.

The Bush administration has declared that previous restrictions outlawing assassinations as a legitimate US foreign policy instrument were not relevant to a nation at war. The administration has resorted to the notion that all is fair in war to justify pre-emptive murder by the United States & Israel, even when the targets could have been captured alive.

As Robertson is well aware, political assassination has at least since the start of the Cold War been included in the repertoire of US foreign policy instruments. It could well be argued that in Latin America political assassination, either of individual left-leaning political leaders or dissident communities, has been a highly successful foreign policy tool for a US government intent on political & economic domination of the hemisphere.

US support for military regimes & death squads that eliminated such leaders as Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Che Guevara in Bolivia & Salvador Allende in Chile is well-known, as are the repeated CIA efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro. 

Arguably, US interests & security, as defined by the bipartisan supporters of such covert activities as assassination & US-engineered coups, have been well served. Similarly, US support for death squads (military & paramilitary) in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay & throughout Central America blocked left-of-center political & economic agendas in the 1970s & 1980s, as Washington intended.

Outside Latin America, CIA-directed or backed killings are also legendary - a not uncommon practice of foreign policy in Southeast Asia, Africa & the Middle East.

The Bush administration saw fit to distance itself from the blunt assessments of one of the president’s most influential supporters.

But the Bush team’s implicit - & in some cases explicit - support for terrorism & torture as instruments of US foreign policy shatters its credibility as an upholder of international law.

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