While we have not yet seen the tactic employed I would consider some other thoughts in regards to the use of drones.
0bama ordered an American citizen killed in Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/middleeast/anwar-al-awlaki-a-us-citizen-in-americas-cross-hairs.html?_r=0
Now, many here will dismiss this killing as he was an ‘enemy combatant,’ traitor, etc. And yes, to a degree I do get that, but was he never legally declared that through due process?
And this is indeed where I have my real big sticking point on this drone program as a whole. Let’s say you decide to go on vacation in a foreign land. Mexico maybe, the Carribean, or maybe Canada I don’t know...you are just out of the country for some reason be it business or pleasure. Consider in your mind that by being a member of the Tea Party, posting here on FR, going to protests, or make strong worded calls to your representative has somehow put you on ‘the list.’ We all sort of joke about being on the government list(s).
The drone program is a very neat and tidy assissination program on foreign soil, isn’t it.
We all more or less agreed that the idea of the drone program inside the U.S. would freak us out. You never know how the government defines radical/extremist/enemy combatant very well these days, do you?
Perpetual war and the battlefield is everywhere and the government has an ever growing kill list.
I don’t think Rand is against killing islamist terrorists. I do think he is against killing American citizens without some sort of due process of law.
” The missile strike on Sept. 30, 2011, that killed Mr. Awlaki — a terrorist leader whose death lawyers in the Obama administration believed to be justifiable — also killed Mr. Khan, though officials had judged he was not a significant enough threat to warrant being specifically targeted. The next month, another drone strike mistakenly killed Mr. Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who had set off into the Yemeni desert in search of his father. Within just two weeks, the American government had killed three of its own citizens in Yemen. Only one had been killed on purpose. “
Lawyers determined it justifiable, not a court, not a military court, lawyers and 0bama. That is a lot or power.
This is a very slipperly slope and there is one thing I do know in my heart, I do not trust my government with this kind of power here in the U.S. And if I am afraid here, but know I am protected from them here...why should that change if I need to leave the country?
At the very least they should be convicted in absentia first.