Assassination has always been a tool of the American state, but before the “War on Terror” it was not something our leaders bragged about. As TomDispatch.com’s Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse explain in their new book, Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050, President Obama has gone beyond his predecessors, even beyond George W. Bush, and consolidated his power to the point of becoming the Assassin-in-Chief. Whether the American people are in favor of this type of warfare has never been asked, leaving the decision of who lives and who dies squarely with the president.

—Max Rivlin-Nadler