The murder of Jamal Khashoggi has given the international order of today a proper shaking. There is a historic precedent. The young Duc d’Enghien was heir to the French throne, and when Napoleon Bonaparte had him murdered, Talleyrand came out with the comment that only a man who understood politics as he did could have made: “It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.” Jamal’s murder is also a mistake.
The Khashoggis are well known Saudis. Jamal’s uncle, Adnan Khashoggi, was a businessman with the usual extravagant tastes and a fortune said to be $4 billion in the 1980s. …
This article appears as “Murder Must Out” in the October 19, 2020, print edition of National Review.
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