Obama finally apologizes for murder by drone strike... since it was an American

[Thumpalumpacus]

It would have been much simpler and much cheaper (in terms of resources and lives) to just kill the bastard.

Um...we did that and the whole region went to shit.  Saddam's Iraq is looking pretty good right now.  That shithead Bush, notwithstanding.

I think ATT is onto something, though. The real reason Iraq flew apart wasn't that Saddam was overthrown, captured and killed, I don't think. The real reason is that with both the army and the police disbanded, the only forces for maintaining stability were American, who were obviously hated and distrusted by all parties except perhaps the Kurds ... and the American forces had zero experience policing a foreign population riven by schism.

I think assassination might have turned the better trick if it was really important to us. A better solution would have been to let the Iraqi resistance handle its own business.