I assumed this was just part of the job of running The Great Hegemony, pretty much set in stone since The Monroe Doctrine. Especially in Ye Colde War Days.
So much so that in the mid-70s backlash against the security state, Ford signed a moratorium on assassinations!
A bunch of al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders along with Qassim Suleimani are all going “what the hell man?!” from beyond the grave.
Odd or not, it actually was a hurdle the early George W. Bush administration had to grapple with. IIRC, the eventual result was the legal innovation of "targeted killings". That said, I wanna say "assassinations" applied legally to heads of state, etc. and not necessarily terrorist leaders.
