Most expensive assassination ever?

Kevin Baron at National Journal seems to think so.  I tend to agree.

"Call him the billion-dollar man. One billion for one dictator.

According to the Pentagon, that was the cost to U.S. taxpayers for Muammar el-Qaddafi’s head: $1.1 billion through September, the latest figure just out of the Defense Department.

And that’s just for the Americans..."

But hey, at least we got some bonus results out of our billions of (borrowed) greenbacks. In addition to getting the colonel whacked and leaving various weapons systems unaccounted for, we also cleared the way for the Islamists to take over another oil-producing nation.

What could go wrong?

(Update) - A well-written article that answers my tongue-in-cheek hypothetical can be found at The Week.  In short - a whole hell of a lot could and probably will go wrong, starting with the fact that every tyrant in the world now sees what happened when their dictator buddies tried to cooperate with the US.