Obama’s Kill List

[KeithE]

And even those militants/extremists/terrorists (whatever term you chose) are not tried in a court of law, betraying our national ideals, and serving only to increase anger towards the US (and thus expanding that list).

If Fox News wants an anti-Obama piece, here it is.

[Hal Eaton]

Yeah, but . . .

The article referenced in this thread offers no proof that Obama's motivation, thoughts, and reasons are as described. In addition, it was written by Fox News' Judge Napolitano, who remains in thrall to Romney for a number or wrong reasons, as indicated by his other writings in the same source.

However, the same denunciation could be made for every US soldier who aims a gun at an "enemy" in a combat zone. An emotional appeal to recognize each enemy death as an affliction on a mother's son, perhaps a family man, father, husband, brother, etc., seeks to de-legitimize the basic concerns for war.

The use of drones to ferret out and eliminate those who are the brains behind the actions of the "enemy" are warrantable, once you consider that the process, and the accompanying military strategy, can accomplish the desired goal with the least danger to our own military members.

Warfare by pushing technology-inspired buttons may well be preferable to hand-to-hand combat.

Military technology has always been inspired by by the attempt to reduce the human costs of warfare by extending the range of weaponry -- from fists, to clubs, to bows-and-arrows, to guns, to artillery, to aerial bombardment, to missiles, to nuclear bombs, and now to drones. Collateral damage has always been one of the costs of war, in any age, from scorched-earth policies of our own Civil War, to saturation bombing during WW II, to drones, and to whatever is the next step in the upward (or downward) spiral. That doesn't make the methodology righteous, or pure, or without some blame/shame/regret/remorse/reproach. The question of necessity is the basis of opinion and dispute.

During the war with North Korea, one general, on observing the looming hillside in the battle plain, was quoted: "I'd give 500 men to take that mountain-top." Surely there is a better way/attitude/strategy . . .

[Haruo]

[Haruo]

On the other hand, I do completely agree that it is undesirable for any president, even Obama , to have the Bush/Cheney definitions codified into law for his support in killing innocent civilians. And I do agree that collateral damage not only kills lots of locals unrelated to the targets and has repercussions potentially leading to American deaths for decades to come.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]