[VTenigma]

Is it any wonder why the U.A. is hated in many parts of the world?

[Smokin' Joe]

One particularly troubling practice is the “double tap” drone strike – the practice of deliberately attacking civilians rescuing the wounded, or the wounded themselves. Dylan Matthews, writing at Vox, reports...

Maybe the operators should have some required reading on terrorist tactics.

Like the Embassy bombings in '98 in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The terrorists set a small bomb to draw attention and get the people working nearby to the windows. After a short delay, a much larger vehicle bomb went off, killing first responders and shattering nearby windows and shredding those gathered there to see what was going on.

Both bombings on the same day followed the same M.O.

The death of civilians (noncombatants) is regrettable, but someone supports the military and terrorist organizations in the area.

War is hell, especially for the civilian population.

I am glad, however, that there are some moral issues for the drone operators. If they were completely devoid of any feelings on the issue of collateral damage, I would be even more concerned.

[Smokin' Joe]

All that said, I think the strikes should be reserved for high priority targets and materiel.

[Sherman Logan]

In the old days, before we went to war, Congress had to declare one. In the old days you couldn’t kill an enemy combatant unless we were in a declared war. In the old days, an enemy combatant was someone wearing a uniform on a field of battle.

Comprehensively untrue.

We fought a naval Quasi War with France under Washington. No Declaration of War. Much of the fighting on both sides was by privateers. No uniforms.

We fought the Barbary pirates, twice, most of whom wore no uniforms. No Declaration.

We fought literally hundreds of wars and military actions against Indians. No uniforms or Declaration. These wars, BTW, are the closest analogy to the War on Terror.

We fought a long bloody war to conquer the Phillipines. No Declaration. Not sure whether any of the Filipinos had uniforms. We also fought a war against the Moros. No uniforms or Declaration.

We invaded and occupied several Latin American and Caribbean countries. No Declaration. Most of our opponents did not wear uniforms.

There was no formal Declaration for the Korean, Vietnam or either of the two Gulf Wars.

We've fought well over a hundred wars, depending on how you define the term, and I think we've only formally declared war six times: Revolution, 1812, Mexican, Spanish, WWI, WWII.

Possibly we should declare war formally before engaging in it. But history just doesn't support the view that this has been our norm.

[Sherman Logan]

We have apparently killed at least four US citizens in drone strikes.

Somebody show me the clause of the Constitution that prescribes American citizens overseas who are waging war on the US be treated differently from any other enemy combatant.

We can have a discussion about whether these strikes should be taking place at all, but not, IMO, that American citizens should have immunity simply because of their citizenship status.

Serving in the armed forces of a country engaged in war with the US or committing treason by waging war against the US or providing aid and comfort to its enemies results in citizenship by definition being relinquished.

Thus "American citizens" engaged in such activities were arguably no longer citizens at all. A hearing does not revoke the citizenship, it merely recognizes the existing state of it having been voluntarily relinquished by the traitor's actions.

[Vaduz]

Wonder what the friends of Clintons death rate would be if they had drones?.

[JimRed]

How times have changed. As I wrote last week, President Obama, sitting in the White House, can authorize the killing of people who are not in uniform, are not armed and are nowhere near a field of battle.

And he can further "authorize" the killing of our own people in uniform on our own soil, by denying them the right and wherewithal to defend themselves.