Editorial writers spend their lives finding the right words. It's an art. They practice it on a daily basis, measuring the weight and nuances of language. The limits of life are, after all, the limits of language. The aim is to persuade, to find the right expression, which brings the reader closer to the truth. Robert Robb's justification of the assassination of General Soleimani as "a tactical battlefield decision" arguing that for legal purposes Iraq is a long-term American battlefield and therefore anyone inimical to the United States can be killed on it, ignores the fact that we are not actually at war with Iran, that the justifications for the Iraq war were suspect and that assassinations are cowardly and underhand. Can all leaders of countries inimical to the United States now expect assassination to be used as a political and military tool? Has the US now become the great assassinator? And were the deaths of the passengers in the downed Ukrainian plane just "collateral damage"... A sad consequence of "a tactical battlefield decision"? Now the intention is to punish the Iranian people even more. Has America lost all sense of decency? Words matter. People matter more.